Crowds gather to see exotic fish Cachar's Kanakpur; "Highly invasive and ecologically detrimental," DFO

Today morning, Joynal Abedin, a local resident of Kanakpur Part II went to see the fishes that got trapped in his net overnight. Alongside the common ‘Puti’, ‘Cheng’, he had a couple of fishes that he could not identify. Being a regular fisherman, he was curious to know more about them. He tried to get hold of the first one and according to him, it stung its fins in his hand and swam away into the deep water. He was cautious and managed to bring the other one to the shore.

Curiosity rose in the vicinity and hundreds started gathering at the residence of Joynal Abedin to get a glimpse of the fish. But what is this fish that is so rare and yet swimming in the waters of this region?

“Appears to be crocodile fish,” asserts professor SP Biswas, Dibrugarh University who specialises in aquatic animals and especially fishes. The professor adds, “It is an exotic fish clandestinely introduced in India. This fish is very effective as an aquarium cleaner. But people release them in natural water bodies and that is the problem.”

Tejas Mariswamy, DFO, Cachar adds, “It is exotic fish and not native. To be more specific, it is a South American Exotic Sailfin Catfish. This is highly invasive and Ecologically detrimental. It must not be left in the river water.”

The DFO, like the professor, suspects, someone must have got it for the aquarium and released it into the water.