Honey bee and budgerigar, buffalo and donkey, cattle and camel have two things in common with the fish catla. They all love company and consume plant matter and therefore can be maintained at little cost under crowded conditions. That is why they have been husbanded by man, beginning with cattle ten thousand years ago.

Catla is among the latest additions, cultured since 1957 when the technique of breeding induced by the administration of reproductive hormones was perfected. This large silvery fish, which may reach two meters in length, naturally breeds during the monsoon along the flooded peripheries of North Indian rivers. When grown to a moderate size it is excellent to eat.

Like buffaloes, cattle and donkeys its natural populations have been largely wiped out; it is however cultured extensively all over India, often as a hybrid with other species or carps. While this had saved catla from possible extinction, it has led, sadly, to wholesale decimation of natural fish communities from many a lake and pond all over the country.