Silverbellies

1. RESOURCES OF SILVERBELLIES
AND
THEIR UTILIZATION
 Jitendra Kumar
 College of Fisheries Mangalore

2. Introduction
 Belongs to family leiognathidae
 Commonly called silverbellies, ponyfish and slip
mouth
 About 2.4% of the total marine capture
 Distributed in the 0-40 m depth range
 Includes in demersal resources

3. Production trends
 Landing
15,000 t – 1961
49,000 t – 2ooo
68,480 t – 2009
- 2010
 Maximum annual landing was about 92,000 t in
1983

4. 0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000
80000
Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
ProductioninTons
Years
Production trend of silver bellies (2001 – 2010)

5. Cont…
 Tamil Nadu – 70%
 Kerala – 9.4%
 Andhra Pradesh – 7.4%
 Gujarat – 4.4%
 In southern Tamil Nadu, these fishes are most
abundant in the shallow areas of palk bay

6. Mode of exploitation
 Exploited by trawl and variety of artisanal gears like
shore seine, boat seine, gill net, etc
 Trawl net is the major gear as by catch
 About 80% of landing are contributed by trawl

7. Species composition
 21 species of silverbellies are known
 Distribution of species vary from region to region
 Almost all 21 species are known from southern Tamil
Nadu
 Dominant spp. are Leiognathus dussumieri, L.
jonesi, L. splendens, L. brevirostris, L. equulus

8. Cont…
 In the Tamil Nadu and along Andhra Pradesh 12 spp.
are known to contribute fishery of which L. bindus,
L. spendens and secutor insidiator are most
dominant
 Above three spp. are also known as southern Tamil
Nadu but very less abundant in this region
 In Kerala four spp. such as L. spendens, L.
brevirostris, S. insidiator and G. minuta contribute
major landing

9. Fishing season
 Seasonal variation
 peak period in
Andhra Pradesh - February and December
Tamil Nadu - August
Kerala - March
Karnataka - April
Gujarat - December

10. Spawning
 L. bindus is fractional spawner spawning through
out the year in Andhra Pradesh
 L. dussumieri spawns during April – May in Gulf of
Mannar
 L. spendens spawns through out the year in Kerala
 Silverbellies are fraction spawners spawning through
out the year with one or two peaks of longer duration
each year
 Move to deeper water for spawning
 Young ones move to the inshore nursery ground

11. Size at maturity
 Length at first maturity ranges from 62 to 100 mm
(10 to 12 month old)
 Majority of the species falling in the range 80 -95
mm

12. fecundity
 L. splendens – 7,000 – 27,000
 S. insidiator - 5,000 – 13,000
 G. minuta - 12,000 – 27,000

13. Age and growth
 Most spp. are small in size
 Size of the different spp. in the fishery ranges from
30 to 145 mm
 Lifespan in the Indian EEZ is very short
 Most species are only annual crops
 Live for not more 2 years and rarely for 3 years

14. Food and feeding
 They are mainly zooplankton feeders

15. Adaptation
1) The feeding habit of the silverbellies is governed by the
their mouth:
 Secutor spp. and some species of leiognathus has
protrusible upward mouth
 Food is maily plankton
 Other leiognathus spp. with protrusible downward
mouth
 Feed mainly on benthic organism like the gastropods,
polychaetes and crustaceans
 G. minuta has canine teeth and feed on crustaceans
and small fishes

16. Cont…
2) Several species of silverbellies spend at part of their
life in estuary
3) Species like L. jonesi undertakes diurnal vertical
migration
 less than 60 mm of L. jonesi occupies the column
water in day time and descend to bottom in the night
 Greater than 60 mm remains in the bottom during
day time and ascend to the column in the night
 At bottom they feed on benthos and at
column/surface, they feed on plankton

17. Cont…
4) Predation on the silverbellies is negligible as
compared to pelagic predation on clupeids

18. Conservation and management
 The continuous spawning leads to continuous
recruitment
 As the life span of the silverbellies is short, it is
considered that if they are not removed by fishing,
they would be subjected to natural death
 Exploitation of this is not likely to adversely effect
the population
 It is the most important to maintain species diversity
and their proportions.

19. Utilization
 Little demand in the fresh condition
 Considerable market for sundried fish and salt-
cured fish
 It is also used as fish meal and poultry feed

20. Conclusion
 It is the single family marine resource, concentrates
at a particular area
 It is the important to maintain species diversity and
their proportions

21. References
 Status of exploited marine fishery resources of India
by CMFRI:127-132
 Handbook of fisheries and aquaculture by ICAR:87-
88
 A manual on marine capture fisheries by
V.K.Venkataramani, N.Jayakumar, P. Jawahar and
R. Santhanam:70-71
 CMFRI annual report 2010-11