First record of invasive croaking gourami in Bangladesh

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JFL S | 2019 | V ol 4(2) | Pp 6-9
Research Article
First record of invasive croaking gourami, Trichopsis vittata (Cuvier
1831) in South-eastern Bangladesh
Md. Shamim Hossain1, Shoaibe Hossain Talukder Shefat1, 2*, Gulshan Ara Latifa3 & Md. Abu Obaida3
1Haor Flood Management and Livelihood Improvement Project, WorldFish-Bangladesh and South Asia Office, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2Department of Fisheries Management, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur, Bangladesh
3Department of Zoology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
I SSN: 24 56-6 26 8
AB ST R ACT
Introduction of invasive species is one of the major causes of native biodiversity loss as
they can alter and degrade the habitat status; reduce food supplies, and poses threats to
the environment. The croaking gourami Trichopsis vittata (Cuvier, 1831), a Southeast
Asian freshwater teleost fish from Osphronemidae family, is generally known as an
invasive alien species. Recently, a notable number of individuals of this species have
been recorded from the southeastern Feni-Muhuri river system of Bangladesh during the
study period from December 2017 to August 2018. Taxonomic identification was
confirmed from the external appearance, morphometric measurements and meristic
counts of the species. The body was laterally elongated with clearly visible stripes and
black blotch above the pectoral fin base. Average total length, standard length, pre-dorsal
length, pelvic fin base length, dorsal fin base length, anal-fin base length, and pectoral-
fin base length were 5.3 cm, 3.64 cm, 2.36 cm, 2.17 cm, 1.95 cm, 1.5 cm, and 1.0 cm.
The number of rays in the dorsal fin, anal fin, pectoral fin, pelvic fin, and caudal fin were
7-10, 31-34, 9-11, 5-8 and 14-17. The occurrence of T. vittata in this river indicates their
rapid spreading across the country within a very short time. It is quite obvious that they
must compete for niche space and food with native fish species and affect the native fish
biodiversity. So, intensive research works along with counter survey are recommended to
cross-check their spreading pattern, ecological sensitivity and impacts on native fish
biodiversity for proper management and conservation.
© 2019 The Authors. Published by JFLS. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0).
A R T I C L E I N F O
Received: 05 September 2019
Accepted: 01 December 2019
Available online: 08 December 2019
K E Y W O R D S
Fish Biodiversity
Feni River
Alien Species
Croaking Noise
Gourami
*
C O R R E S P O N D E N C E
shoaibeshefat@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION
Bangladesh is a South Asian country having precious
water resources comprising of inland freshwater, brackish
water, and marine waters enriched with aquatic biodiversity
of about 800 fish species (Hussain and Mazid 2001). It is in
the third position among the most suitable regions for
ﬁsheries and aquaculture in the world due to geographic
position. Freshwater habitats of Bangladesh contain
biodiversity of 260 indigenous fish and 24 freshwater prawn
species. Such rich species diversity is attributed to the large
area of ﬂooded wetlands including beels, haors, baors,
lakes, and the major river systems of the Padma, Meghna,
and Jamuna (Hussain 2010). There are about 40-50 small
indigenous species (SIS) are available in Bangladesh,
having a maximum length of 25 cm (Shamsuzzaman et al.
2017). Besides these, about 150 exotic fish species have
been introduced into the country over the last decades for
aquaculture purposes, of which about 24 fish species are
found in the floodplains and tributaries of the Ganges Delta
(Siddiqui et al., 2007; IUCN, 2015). Recently, a notable
number of individuals of an invasive croaking gourami,
Trichopsis vittata (Cuvier, 1831) have been encountered
from the southeastern Feni-Muhuri river system in
Chittagong division during field survey of freshwater fish
biodiversity in Bangladesh.
The croaking gourami Trichopsis vittata (Cuvier,
1831) is a Southeast Asian freshwater fish species from the
perch group. They are native to waters in Southeast Asian
countries including Thailand, Indonesia, Mekong basins,
Vietnam (Robins 1992, Rainboth 1997, Baird et al. 1999,
Kottelat 1985, 2013); the Ayeyarwady and the Yangon
Rivers of Myanmar (Norén et al. 2017), the USA (Shafland
1996, Schofield and Pecora 2013, Schofield and Schulte
2016) and India (Talwar and Jhingran 1991, Vidthayanon
2012, Knight and Balasubramanian 2015). This species is

7
not fished commercially, occasionally sold as part of mixed
catches in markets.
T. vittata was identified in Bangladesh for the first
time in the Meghna and adjacent floodplain area (Hossain et
al. 2012) and morphometries were studied by Islam et al.
(2014) and Hossain (2014). After that, Noren et al. (2017)
have identified this species from different habitats of
Bangladesh, but detailed information of this species is not
available. In addition, very limited works have been carried
out on this species in Bangladesh for which most part of
their life is still unrevealed to us. Therefore, this study
aimed to investigate the biology, source of introduction,
impacts on native fish biodiversity and spreading pattern of
this croaking gourami to develop proper conservation
strategy and implementation of a systematic approach.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The inland open water bodies of Bangladesh are rich
sources of different types of fishes from the ancient time.
There are about 700 actively flowing rivers in Bangladesh
across the country having 260 freshwater fish and other
commercially important aquatic organisms. The Feni River
is a transboundary river originated from the hill ranges of
south Tripura in India (23°20'N & 91°47'E) and entered
Bangladesh through Sabroom town. This river is used to
form the demarcation line between Chittagong, Noakhali
and Tripura State of India. The Muhuri river also known as
Little Feni, originated from Noakhali District joins the Feni
river near its mouth at Char Kalidas point (22°54'37.5"N &
91°30'02.4"E). Trichopsis vittata was first collected from
the highly polluted industrial area on 14 December 2017 at
11:40 am. Different types of fishing gear including Dip nets,
seine nets, and traps were used in sampling of the fish. Few
other individuals were collected from the adjacent water
areas on the day. Again in May 2018 and August 2018, T.
vittata was recorded from the Feni-Muhuri River system
during a subsequent thorough investigation. There was total
of eight sampling station where nominal distance between
two stations was 1.5 km. GPS Coordinates of the sampling
sites are 22°56'03.2"N 91°32'15.4"E, 22°55'36.7"N
91°31'56.7"E, 22°55'08.9"N 91°31'38.7"E, 22°54'42.8"N
91°31'21.1"E, 22°54'21.7"N 91°30'54.3"E, 22°54'03.4"N
91°30'25.7"E, 22°54'00.3"N 91°29'53.0"E and
22°54'36.8"N 91°30'01.2"E.
Collected fish samples were immediately preserved
in 10% formaldehyde for taxonomic study. After that, the
fish samples were transferred into 30%, 50% and 70%
subsequent solutions of ethanol for long-time preservation
following the preservation method stated by Talwar and
Jingran (1991) and Sterba (1962). Morphometric and
meristic characteristics including Total Length (TL),
Standard Length (SL), Forked Length (FL), Head Length
(HL), Peduncle Length (PL), Peduncle Depth (PD), Pectoral
Fin Length (P1FL), Pelvic Fin Length (P2FL), Pelvic Fin
Base Length (P2FB), Scale Above Lateral Line (SALL),
rays in dorsal fin, anal fin, pectoral fin, pelvic fin, and
caudal fin and others were studied using standard
methodology used by Murdy and Shibukawa (2001).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Total of eighteen individuals was collected from the
Feni-Muhuri river system during the study period. The body
shape of the collected samples was laterally elongated and
the dorsal fin originates far behind the base of the pectoral
fin. Body-color was pale brown with clearly visible stripes
and black spots on the fins on both sides of the body. The
iris of the eye was bright blue. Multi-branched fin rays
present in the anal fin with six to eight spines. Pelvic fin
contains 1 spine followed by a filament and 4 branched
rays. The dorsal fin contains two to four spines. Anal fin
with a few elongated filament-like rays, extending back
almost to the tip of caudal fin; and black blotches above the
pectoral-fin base. About 13 transverse scale rows present in
the body and lateral line is absent (Fig. 1). It is an
insectivorous fish, naturally capable of producing a
croaking noise or audible sound using their pectoral fins
(Ladich et al. 1992, Bischof 1996, Ladich 2007).
Vocalization often starts on the ﬁrst day after hatching
which changes with increasing the age of hatchlings and
development of sound-producing structure (Henglmüller
1999, Liengpornpan et al. 2006, 2007). This species is
typically regarded as a negative biological indicator and has
been recorded from different countries as an introduced fish
species.
Fig. 1: Photograph of Trichopsis vittata, collected from the
Feni-Muhuri River system on 14 December 2017 at 11:40
am
Average total length, standard length, pre-dorsal
length, pre-orbital length, post-orbital length, and inter-
orbital lengths were 5.3 cm, 3.64 cm, 2.36 cm, 0.36 cm,
0.67 cm and 0.42 cm respectively. The pelvic fin base
length, dorsal fin base length, anal-fin base length, and
pectoral-fin base length were 2.17 cm, 1.95 cm, 1.5 cm, and
1.0 cm respectively. Meristic characteristics are the discrete,
serially repeated, and countable characteristics. Meristic
counts for dorsal fin rays of T. vittata ranged from 7 to 10,
anal fin rays were found to be ranged from 31 to 34,
pectoral fins ranged from 9 to 11, pelvic fins ranged from 5
to 8 and caudal fin rays ranged from 14 to 17. It has been
found that the number of rays were the same among the
specimens collected from the different water bodies. The
dorsal fin rays, pectoral fin rays, pelvic fin rays, and the
caudal fin rays were similar as described by Rainboth
(1997), Utayopas (2001), and Hossain (2012). Reed (1967)
and other researchers reported that the fin rays of same
species do not differ much from each other.
Introduction of invasive species is one of the major
causes of native biodiversity loss as they can alter and
degrade the habitat status; reduce food supplies, and poses
threats to the environment (Hettinger 2001, Innal and
Erk’akan 2006). According to Siddiqui et al. (2007) and
IUCN (2015), there are about 24 exotic fish species found in
the floodplains and tributaries of the Ganges Delta. Exotic
fish species have been introduced in Bangladesh either due

8
to aquarium release or deliberate aquaculture attempts and
bio-control efforts. T. vittata is a newer addition to the list.
In the sampling sites, this species was found in a
very lower density than the other fishes at different times of
the year. However, the overall count of this species is
sufficient to prove their strong biology and adaptability in
disturbed ecology. This is the very first record of T. vittata
in southeastern regions of Bangladesh. Yeasmin et al.
(2017) recorded total of 65 freshwater fish species
belonging to 11 orders and 29 families from the Feni-
Muhuri river system with two gourami species from the
Osphronemidae family, stripped gourami (Trichogatster
fasciatas; Bloch and Schneider, 1801) and red gourami
(Trichogaster lalius; Hamilton, 1822). Previously this
species was recorded from the Meghna River and the Old
Brahmaputra River (Hossain et al. 2012, Islam et al. 2014)
and the Baikka beel, a freshwater wetland ecosystem in the
northeastern Bangladesh (Akash and Hossain, 2018). This
species was found in higher abundance from highly polluted
water body with severely lower dissolved oxygen level.
This finding is similar to Ng et al. (2018) and Li et al.
(2019) where they recorded T. vittata from heavily
disturbed freshwater ecology with lower pH and dissolved
oxygen level. Li et al. (2019) recorded T. vittata from the
freshwater river streams containing 3.52 mg/L dissolved
oxygen. Islam et al. (2018) reported on heavy metal
pollution in the Feni river estuary with higher rate of
pollution in the upward stations. In our study, the presence
of T. vittata was always associated with nearly stagnant,
freshwater habitats marked with zero salinity and rich in
submerged and floating vegetation which is similar to the
previous findings (Norén et al. 2017).
It is still unknown exactly either T. vittata is found in
Bangladesh waters as a true survivor or newly introduced.
There is an assumption that this species was illegally
released in the waters of Bangladesh but there is no
evidence of that. Besides this, there is strong controversy
among the scientists regarding their way of introduction.
Norén et al. (2017), who identified Trichopsis vittata from
Bangladesh and Myanmar with scientific documentation for
the first time, mentioned it most likely an aquarium escape
but another school (Akash and Hossain 2018) disagreed to
this opinion and opined that their (T. vittata) establishment
in Bangladesh is owing to deliberate aquaculture attempts,
acting as an invasion vector. The sampling locations in the
southeastern Feni-Muhuri rivers system is far away from the
main town and have no direct connection with the river
system. So there is no possibility of introducing T. vittata in
this region from aquarium escape. In addition, the local
aquarium fish traders and fish farmers are not familiar with
this invasive fish species. Findings from this study strongly
disagreed to the previous opinions regarding their source of
introduction in this region.
CONCLUSION
Introduction of invasive species is one of the major
causes of native biodiversity loss and threats to the
environment (De Iongh and Van Zon 1993). T. vittata is a
non-native fish species has been recorded from several
water bodies in Bangladesh including the Meghna River,
Buriganga River, Feni River and Muhuri River. But still
unknown either it was introduced accidentally from
aquarium escape or intentionally for aquaculture purpose.
This fish is spreading very quickly across the country over
the years with a north-eastwardly colonization pattern which
will definitely affect the native fish biodiversity. However,
the impact of this species on other indigenous fish species is
currently unknown. The absence of data does not equate to
lack of effects. It is quite obvious that they must compete
for niche space and food with native species. Currently,
there are no other techniques available for eradication of T.
vittata except dewatering and using pesticides which cause
a great deal of collateral damage to native species. Further
research works will undoubtedly enhance our understanding
of their geographic ranges, behavioral interactions, and
impacts on native biodiversity. Therefore, studying biology
and interspecies interactions of T. vittata across its
nonnative range in Bangladesh has become an urgent issue.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to express our gratitude to the Faunal
Survey and Enrichment of Facilities for Biodiversity
Research Sub-project (CP-2216), HEQEP, UGC,
Bangladesh and World Bank for the financial support. We
also want to acknowledge all the researchers and staffs of
FSEFBR/HEQEP (CP-2216) for their great support during
data collection and data processing.
DISCLOSOUR STATEMENT
The authors declare that there exist no conflicts of
interest regarding the publication of this article. The funding
bodies had no role in the study design, data collection, data
analysis, data interpretation or decision to publish the
findings.
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First record of invasive croaking gourami in Bangladesh

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