SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE BIOLOGY OF PENAEUS INDICUS H. MILNE-EDWARDS AND PENAEUS MONODON FABRICIUS FROM THE CHILKA LAKE

Abstract

The information available on the biology and fishery of the two commercially
important penaeid prawns Penaeus indicus H. Milne-Edwards and Penaeus monodon
Fabricius from the Chilka lake is not much. Kemp (1915) gave brief notes on the
migratory nature of these two species and described the colouration of the postlarvae
of P. monodon. Devasundaram (1954) furnished information on the magnitude
of catches of these two species, while Jones and Sujansinghani (1954) gave
information on the gear operated for the capture of prawns and the fishing season
together with export figures for large and small sized prawns for the period 1948-50.
Jhingran et al. (1963) gave the landing figures, period of migration into the sea
and period of post-larval recruitment into the lake and Jhingran and Natarajan
(1966) furnished brief notes on the lunar periodicity of the catches, rate of growth
and food and indicated the existence of at least two broods.
Studies on the biology of Penaeus indicus ("Kantala chingri") and Penaeus
monodon ("Bagda") were undertaken by the author in the Chilka lake during an
eight-month period from May to December 1963. The present preliminary observations
are on the length-weight relation, sex ratio, food, moulting, breeding and
migration.