Agartala: Little seedlings fighting for survival in the oxygen-filled water bags is a common scene at a fish production facility located at Agartala’s College Tilla. The government-owned facility, which has restrictions for visitors, is actually a scientific breeding ground for a specific species of fish that has huge demand in the local market of Tripura.
An initial look at the fishlings moving aimlessly in the specially-designed water tanks might drive someone to feel these are nothing but mosquito larva as we see them in the filthy drainages of the city, but in reality they are the freshwater prawns produced by using artificial methods.
Hirak Sarkar, a fishery officer who heads the facility, explained that by nature Tripura is not suitable for breeding fresh water prawns and hence scientific intervention is needed for prawn cultivation.
“The fresh water prawns are a very unique species. They stay in fresh water but breed in maritime water. Being a landlocked state, we don’t have direct contact with sea geographically, which is why we are preparing the maritime water artificially to make the animal feel he is in the suitable condition of spawning. The eggs are preserved and after it reaches the juvenile stage, fish farmers are allowed to take them for further rearing in the bigger aquatic atmosphere such as ponds and lakes,” Sarkar told EastMojo.
The freshwater giant prawns are high in demand in the state’s markets. Even as this species does not belong to the fish family scientifically, it is very much a part of the fish business across the state. At the mature stage, the average price of the lower-layer water animal in the markets ranges from Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,600 per kg.
During festivals like Bijaya Dashami, Pohela Boishakh and Jamai Sasti, the prices shoot up to optimum level which is beyond Rs 1,600.
According to the officials, the food that is used for prawn fry comes all the way from America. “The cost of the prawn fry is high because we have to spend a lot for their fodder. A special kind of fodder is brought here and processed in the Artemia hatching unit to prepare the fodder for the baby prawns,” said another official.
Delving into more details, Hirak Sarkar said, “We collect the female berried prawns from the ponds of local progressive fish farmers. We bring them to our facility and set them on saline water. A series of scientific processes is executed here after which they lay the eggs.”
According to him, the freshwater giant prawn production hatchery that he leads also provides training to the progressive fish farmers and distributes juvenile prawns among the beneficiaries of government schemes.
“A lot of farmers who are working without any support from the state government have also shown experience lately to start prawn culture in their water bodies,” said Sarkar.
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Sarkar also threw some light on the kind of precautions that the farmer should maintain while adopting prawn culture. He said, “Rohu and Catla are widely known fish species that are found in the freshwater in Tripura. These two species mainly stay in the upper layer of the water body, which means they are not a threat to the comparatively weaker prawns. The bottom layer fishes like Mrigel and common carps are advised to be discarded from the pond before releasing the prawns in the water otherwise they would feed on prawns.”
According to experts, prawns are sometimes found practicing cannibalism if any food scarcity strikes their habitat. It is advised that they get adequate food in the lower level of the pond in order to prevent that. Sarkar also maintained that the number of progressive fish farmers are growing in leaps and bounds here in Tripura.
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