Short Communication Occurrence of fishes and non-fin fishes of the river Padma near

Bangladesh is fortunate enough in having an extensive and huge freshwater resources scattered all over the country in the form of rivers, ponds, ditches, beels, lakes, haors, baors, floodplains and canals covering an area of 5,433,900 ha. The total freshwater fish production in the year 2003-04 was 2,102,026 mt. (DoF, 2005). Total inland open freshwater area is 40,47,316 ha which is contributing 34.83 % of total fish capture. Total fish production from inland closed water area in the year 2003-04 was 914,752 mt., as against 78.34 % of the total production and fisheries sector accounts for 4.92 % of GDP, 23 % of the gross value added to agricultural products, more then 11 % of export earnings, and employs over 2 million people (DoF, 2005). There are 257 species of fishes in the inland waters of Bangladesh (Rahman, 1989). Munro (1955), Talwar & Jhingran (1991) and other researchers made many taxonomic researches on the freshwater fishes of India. Talwar & Jhingran (1991) reported that the Indian fish fauna is an assemblage of about 2500 species depicting diverse characteristics, of which 930 belonging to 326 genera inhabit the inland waters. Qureshi (1965) in his monograph included 133 species, most of which occurred in Bangladesh. Doha (1973) published a list of 106 species from Mymensing and Tangail district of Bangladesh. Agostinho (2003) conducted his research on the Parana river in South America which is the tenth longest river in the world. Kasyanov (2003) reported the the ichthyofauna of the Ob river basin which includes two species of cyclostomes and 51 species of fishes belonging to 10 orders, 18 families, and 37 genera. Hasan (2007) recorded 33 specimens of fish and fisheries items in Chitra and Fatki rivers. Zafar et al. (2007) recorded a total of 75 species of fishes and other organisms including crabs, prawns, mollusks and leeches in the investigated area of the Pagla river. The present research has been carried out in order to explore the existing fish fauna of the river Padma nea