Catla
Labeo catla
Also known asBhakur
Water parameters
Minimum tank: 3000 L per individual at harvest size.
Feed and growth
- Feed protein
- 28% target
- Daily feed (warm)
- 2.00% of body weight
- Daily feed (cool)
- 0.60% of body weight
- Max density
- 40 g per litre
A 25000 g adult eats about 500.0 g of feed per day at optimum. 10 fish at adult size: ~5000 g daily.
Legality
Rules vary by jurisdiction and change over time. Verify with your local fisheries or wildlife authority before stocking.
| Jurisdiction | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| United States (federal) | check local regulations | verified 2026-05-13 |
| New South Wales | prohibited | verified 2026-05-13 |
Unlisted jurisdictions default to "check local regulations".
Origin and habitat
Catla is one of the three major Indian carps, alongside rohu and mrigal, that underpin carp polyculture across South Asia. Now usually placed in the genus Labeo as Labeo catla, it was long known as Catla catla and is also listed as Gibelion catla; all refer to the same large cyprinid. It is native to the rivers and floodplain lakes of the northern Indian subcontinent, in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Myanmar, and has been moved more widely for farming. Catla is a surface and upper-column feeder: adults take mostly zooplankton, younger fish both zooplankton and phytoplankton, strained with fine gill rakers. It grows large and fast, putting on a kilogram or more in its first year and reaching up to about 1.2 metres and 35 to 40 kg in the wild, though pond fish are usually harvested at one to three kilograms in twelve to eighteen months. The flesh is white and, like most big cyprinids, fairly bony, and it is a staple protein across the region, where India and Bangladesh produce major carps in the millions of tonnes a year.
Climate and outdoor ponds
- Climate
- tropical (needs warm water year-round)
- USDA zones
- 9–13 (winter low around -7°C or warmer)
- Heating needed
- no
- Cooling needed
- no
Care notes
A warm-water, high-volume species at the heart of South Asian carp polyculture. In the classic three-species system catla works the surface, rohu the midwater, and mrigal the bottom, so the fish share a pond without competing for the same food or space. It is eurythermic, growing best between about 25°C and 32°C and tolerating down to roughly 14°C. Growth is quick in fertile water, reaching one to two kilograms in twelve to eighteen months in fertilized ponds; under pellet feeding at 25 to 30 percent protein, feed conversion runs from about 1.4 in trials up toward 2.5 in ponds. Because it is a plankton feeder, catla does best in green, fertilized pond water rather than the clear, filtered water of typical small-scale aquaponics, so it is a poor fit for a backyard hobby system, though large integrated pond-and-vegetable operations in South Asia are a long-standing version of the same idea. In the three-species mix catla is usually stocked at around 30 to 35 percent, with rohu and mrigal making up the rest. Fingerlings are abundant from government and private hatcheries across India and Bangladesh, and the fish is legal and everywhere across South Asia but rarely cultured elsewhere.