The state administration in a release said that its ambitious Sujalam Sufalam Yojana has helped it indirectly battle dengue and Malaria menace too. The rise in water levels in existing ponds due to desilting and deepening and the creation of new water bodies in the district of Ahmedabad has provided the administration with new places to increase the breeding of the Guppy fish.
It should be noted that the fish (Poecilia reticulata) is being used to fight mosquito breeding as they eat the larvaes thus preventing the spread of vector-borne diseases like dengue and malaria.
“The good rains and the new water sources that have been developed has helped provide a boost to the administration’s efforts to create new hatcheries and breed the fish,” district development officer Arun Mahesh Babu said in a release. The release also said that the district administration had made considerable success in increasing the population of such fish this year.
Giving details of the ponds that have turned into breeding grounds for such fish, the release said that in all 60 ponds of Ahmedabad districts have been used to breed the fish. Of this, 20 are in Daskroi while 11 are in Viramgam and five in Sanand among others.
It should be noted that only 5 fishes are needed per one metre of area to destroy the larvae but if needed more than 20 can be released if the larvae is in abundance. The fish can be easily bred and are easy to maintain. They can survive in almost all types of water.
It can also acclimatise itself with considerable ease in various types of environment (including extremely polluted water) thus making it a potent weapon in the fight against vector borne diseases. It however cannot survive in water that has a temperature below 10 degree celsius.
It takes 90 days for the fish to gain maturity and on an average it lays 50 to 200 eggs. It can breed every four weeks although it also depends on the weather and can live up to 4 years under favourable conditions.
