Breeding vanishing eel in labs

THE VANISHING dojo or weather

loach, a kind of eel that thrives in cold

mountain rivers, was successfully

propagated in a laboratory in

Pangasinan.

Researchers tried to breed

the dojo (Misgurnus

anguillicaudatus) in the

Ifugao rice terraces, but the

venture was unsuccessful.

Westly Rosario, officer in

charge of the Bureau of

Fisheries and Aquatic

Resources in Pangasinan,

said breeding the fish ''down here is indeed a breakthrough.''

The breeding room is cooled down to simulate weather

conditions in the uplands, Rosario said. ''It's not very cold, only

minus 27 degrees Centigrade.''

The dojo (jojo to Cordillerans) plays an important role in the

protein supply of upland residents.

They are bountiful during the rainy season when water is

abundant in rice paddies. When the paddies dry up, dojos

burrow under the soil and awaken when the rain comes.

This cycle of life is about to cease because of pesticides,

conversion of rice paddies into dry gardens and increase in

human population.

When the number of dojos started to dwindle, the government

looked for a type of fish that can thrive well in the uplands.

Rosario said they first tried to raise tilapia in mountain waters,

but the fish was not able to withstand the mountain chill.

''The success of the propagation project of dojos is, therefore,

special,'' he said.

The center started its research in March with 270 stocks of dojo

from La Trinidad, Benguet.

Less than three months later, the laboratory was able to breed

more than 9,000 30-day dojos now ready for distribution to

Cordillera.

The mortality rate among the original stocks was 6 percent, most

of them male. ''This is because we have to extract the testes to

fertilize the females,'' Rosario said.

Male dojos are shorter than the female. The male grows up to 9

centimeters and the female, up to 13 cm.

Cordillerans claim that dojo is endemic to their mountain

abodes. But scientists said the fish was introduced in the

Philippines, specifically the uplands, for aquaculture purposes

during the Japanese occupation.

During the early 1980s, investors from Japan and Taiwan

established buying stations for the eel in Banaue. The loach

was then vanishing in Japan and Taiwan because of excessive

use of pesticides.