SCIENTIFIC NAME Mystus bleekeri
(Day, 1877)
COMMON NAME Day’s Mystus
LOCAL NAME Tengsi
CLASSIFICATION
| Class | Osteichthyes |
| Sub-Class | Actinopterygii |
| Order | Siluriformes |
| Family | Bagridae |
| Genus | Mystus |
| Species | bleekeri |
| Class | Osteichthyes |
Habits and habitat
Mystus bleekeri fish occurs in ponds, tanks, maun, chaurs, rivers and canals of almost all the districts of Bihar. Generally found in Sone and Ganga river. Mostlly found in Rohtas, Bhojpur, Patna, Bhagalpur, Chapra and Gaya. Also found in floodplain area, lotic and lentic water system.
Salient feature
The body is elongated and laterally compressed. The species has greenish to brown clour above and light colour below. It has four pairs of barbels. One pair of barbel is very long and other is sort in size on mouth of upper jaw. There are two lateral bands, one on the upper side of lateral line and other on lower side. It has two dark deep black blotch on the body, one behind the gill cover and second as a spot on caudal peduncle which looks very attractive. This makes the fish attractive with light black line with few dusky dots. Dorsal, anal, pectoral fins are short, forked usually preceded by a spine. Anal fin usually is short with 10-12 soft rays. It is carnivorous, feeds on insects, worms, plankton, molluscan and crustaceans. This species breeds in pre monsoon season in natural condition with slow flow water system having sandy bottom. It attains a length of 17cm.
source-
- Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore
