Size Composition, Exploitation Structure and Sex Ratio of Clupisoma garua (Hamilton) from Middle Stretch of the Ganga River at Allahabad, India

Abstract

Clupisoma garua is a medium-sized freshwater catfish with very high market value in Indian sub-continent. Besides immense food value, the fish is also known as a game fish. The fish samples for this study were randomly collected from middle stretch of the river Ganga at Allahabad during July 2014–June 2015. The size composition of the samples varied from 135 to 446 mm. The maximum exploitation was observed in 171–210 mm size group (29.04%), while minimum in 411–450 mm (0.83%) in stock samples. In general, lower size groups were highly exploited compared to middle and higher size groups. Male population dominates over females in 211–250, 251–290 and 331–370 mm size groups, in contrary, female was dominant in size groups from 131–170, 171–210 and 291–330 mm.