Abstract:To assess the proximate composition, five dried fish samples of Mystus vittatus, Channa punctatus, Chanda nama, Corica soborna and Trichuirus haumela were selected. The moisture content ranged from 14.06% to 24.58%, protein varied between 44.08% to 65.65% (moisture basis) and 53.45% to 76.39% (dry matter basis), lipid content of the selected dried fishes ranged from 1.91% to 17.76% (moisture basis) and 2.31% to 21.54% (dry matter basis). Ash content varied from 9.63% to 22.73% (moisture basis) and 11.21% to 28.15% (dry matter basis). The experiment was replicated three times and conducted from February, 2009 to August, 2009. Samples were collected from Sayedpur Upazaila, Nilphamari District, the north-west region of Bangladesh.Key Words: dried fish, moisture, crude protein, lipid and ash IntroductionFreshwater fishes play a vital role for animal proteins in the world. Approximately 16 percent of animal proteins consumed by the world's population are derived from fishes, and over one billion people depend on fish as their main source of animal proteins (FAO, 2000). Fishes are easily digestible nature of proteins and are important source of essential minerals. Besides, the dried fishes are also rich in other nutritional components (Nettleton, 1992;Graikoski, 1998;Basu and Gupta, 2004). Laureti (1998) established that dried fishes often are an alternative to fresh fishes in many places. According to DoF (2011) significant amount of dried fishes (approximately 622 mt) were exported and earned 25.06 core taka of foreign currency. But many cases it does not possible to get similar flavor, taste or texture from dried fishes. Saha (2003) reported that in Bangladesh most of the market samples become slightly odourless and some lose the shelf life where rancid and bitter tastes are developed. Nutritional composition also varied in large scale in different dried fish product. Now-a-days consumer wants to know and ensured the nutritional value of the products what they are eating. Although a good number of works on the biochemical composition of fishes in Bangladesh have been done by many researchers viz. Rubbi et al. (1987), Mollah et al. (1998Mollah et al. ( , 2000, Nurullah et al. (2002Nurullah et al. ( , 2003, Islam et al. (2003), Mazumder et al. (2008). But the dried fishes both freshwater and marine species were not focused. So the present investigation was carried out in order to assess the percentage of proximate composition of five fish species through laboratory analysis.