A ten months investigation was conducted to know the status of bacterial flora in the farmed hybrid catfish (Clarias hybrid) and respective pond water from the fish pond of a commercial fish farm of Bangladesh. The average total load in pond water, slime and kidney of fish varied from 2.1×10 3 to 4.1×10 6 CFU/ml of water, 5.6×10 3 to 4.4×10 9 CFU/g of slime and 1.8×10 1 to 2.7×10 4 CFU/g of kidney. Coryneforms and Flavobacterium were the dominant bacteria in the observed fish-organs and pond-water. Higher bacterial load was recorded in the months of September and October. Sensitivity of the isolated Aeromonads and Pseudomonads to various antibacterial agents was determined. Higher percentage of resistant Aeromonads and Pseudomonads were observed against oxytetracycline followed by erythromycin. On the contrary, the percentage of resistant Aeromonads and Pseudomonads was lower against oxolinic acid.

Hilsa (Tenualosa ilisha) is the national and most important commercial fish species of Bangladesh. Hilsa widely occurs mainly in marine and estuarine environment but started to decline gradually over 30 years and reach to minimum during 1991-1992 that continued up to 2002-2003. Realizing the decreasing trend of hilsa, government took initiative to increase production by implementing regulation on jatka catch and restriction on brood hilsa catch from the breeding season of 2003-2004 under the Protection and Conservation of Fish Act, 1950. Hilsa management strategies help to contribute 11 percent of the total fish production and 1 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Bangladesh. Based on secondary literature this study describes biology of hilsa, existing hilsa management strategy and its impact on hilsa. To improve the situation a number of suggestions are elicited for effective management of the hilsa fishery that could be incorporated in the national policy.

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A fishers’ women-led Participatory Action Research (PAR) was conducted in 30 homestead ponds to assess the potential for polyculture of Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and major carps Rohu (Labeo rohita) and Catla (Catla catla) in two coastal fishing villages of Bangladesh. Three treatments, namely T1 (Tilapia 200 fish per decimal; 1 decimal=40 m2), T2 (Tilapia 200+ Rohu 32+ Catla 8 fish per decimal) and T3 (Tilapia 200+ Rohu 8+ Catla 32 fish per decimal), each with 5 replicates, were tried in Hossainpur and Anipara villages. Formulated commercial Mega-feed was applied to the ponds twice daily at an initial rate of 10% body weight (bw)/day of Tilapia down to 4% bw/day throughout the culture period. The water quality parameters of ponds including transparency, salinity and dissolved oxygen significantly varied among treatments except temperature and pH and remained within optimum range for carp polyculture except salinity. The survival rate, harvesting weight and yield of Tilapia were significantly highest in T1 (85.63±05%, 258.59±18.76 g & 11073±805 kg/ha, respectively) in Anipara and lowest in T3 (75.63±0.37%, 136.97±10.63 g & 5180±406 kg/ha, respectively) in Hossainpur. The gross fish production was the significantly highest in T1 (11354±806 kg/ha) of Anipara and lowest in T1 (6325±227 kg/ha) of Hossainpur. Statistically, the highest net return (866,627±84874 BDT/ha) was found in T1 of Anipara and lowest in T3 (279,389±46104 BDT/ha) of Hossainpur with a significantly higher benefit-cost ratio (BCR) obtained in T1 (3.26±0.20) for Tilapia and lower in T3 (1.58±0.10) for polyculture Tilapia and carp of Hossainpur. Therefore, it may be concluded that Tilapia production in small homestead coastal ponds has a higher potential than its mix with carps in polyculture for generating food and supplemental income opportunity for coastal fishers’ women in Bangladesh.