Biology and Stock Assessment of Selected Catfishes Off Mumbai

Catfishes are one of the major contributors to the demersal fish landings of India. Out of the twenty one species of catfishes found along the Indian coast, five are contributing commercially. They belong to the family Ariidae or Tachysauridae and Arius caelatus (Valenciennes, 1840) and Arius tenuispinnis (Day, 1877) assumes importance in terms of fishery around Mumbai. Presently, the stock of catfishes is also under danger of over-exploitation by trawlers, purse seiners, and partially by gill nets since the behavioral pattern of males during the time of parental care, when they segregate from the spawned females and move in schools to the surface and column waters makes them vulnerable to easy capture. Thus, it becomes necessary to study the biology and stock status of this important resource. With this view, the present study was conducted on diet and dietary habit, reproductive biology, fecundity, growth, mortality, recruitment and stock status of A. caelatus and A. tenuispinnis in Mumbai waters, west coast of India.