Effect of Dissolve Oxygen on Catfish Heteropneustes Fossils

Importance of catfishes in commercial fisheries is growing worldwide. For commercial aquaculture, dissolve oxygen (DO) is one of the most essential factors effecting greatly on growth and population dynamics of normal water breathing fishes. But it also affects the physiology of air breathing catfishes. In view of this, an experiment was done by using Singi (Heteropneustes fossils) of fresh water habitat to specifically look at the effect of DO on catfishes. For this study, singi fishes each of 100 g weight were reared in 20 different aquariums of 30 litre capacity. Everyday 15 gm of food per aquarium was given. DO was regularly measured. Subsequent effects on body weight and their increase in number were taken in every 2 months for 2 years. Results showed that, at DO 68% of saturation and above, food conversion ratio was satisfactory. However, at saturated DO level, the body mass increase is little lower than medium DO level (77.5% of saturation). At DO 82% of saturation, the population growth rate is highest. It is concluded that DO level has a positive correlation with population growth and feed conversion to body mass ratios of catfishes, probably by increasing its activity and metabolism.