author(s)
Pampa Bhattacharjee and Prasenjit Pal

abstract
Ompok pabda is a highly consumer preferred fish. The biological parameters such as length and weight, condition factor (K_n), growth pattern and types of growth of Ompok pabda is necessary to know for the aquaculture practices. So, to study the bionomics (i.e., food and feeding habit, the relative length of gut, stomach content and feeding intensity) of Ompok pabda (Hamilton, 1822) the fish were sampled from the Gomati River and Rudrasagar lake of Tripura. The relationship between the length and weight of the species was studied by applying non linear model. The parameter estimates, mean square error (MSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) were also computed for finding the better model. The average relative condition factor (K_n) was also estimated. The length and weight relation of different age group were calculated for Ompok pabda. The food and feeding habit and the relative length of gut, stomach, and feeding intensity were examined by using standard methods. The morphology and morphometrics of the alimentary canal have also been studied along with the gut content analysis using standard methods. The Relative length of Gut of the dissected fish was studied meticulously and recorded the food contents as per point’s methods. Out of total 362 sample specimens of Ompok pabda, the total length was varied from 7.7-20.7 cm. The morphology and morphometrics of the alimentary canal have also been studied along with the gut content analysis. The gastro-somatic index observed maximum (11.7%) in February and recorded in higher values from January to March. This phase revealed the early maturing stages of gonad and lowest GaSI (%) recorded during the advance spawning stage of gonads during the months of May to August (2.1 to 0.81). The result of the present study reveals the isometric pattern of growth and food and feeding habit of the fish indicate that O. pabda is a carnivorous fish. It was found that the effect of length on weight is statistically significant at 5% level of significance (<0.05). Similarly, it was observed that the effect of gender on weight is statistically significant at 5% level of significance (<0.05).