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Lates calcarifer (Bloch) is a brackish water fish and commonly known as “Barramundi”. It is also famous by the name of Cock-up sea perch. It is locally called as “Coral” in Bangladesh. L. calcarifer is a commercially important euryhaline fish of the Indian sub-continent and it grows to a comparatively large size with delicate, flovoured flesh and commands high price in the markets (Das 2000). Barramundi are valuable both as recreational and commercial fish, with a high, fairly stable price (Luna 2008). It has become a vulnerable in marine species due to over exploitation (Cheung et. al. 2005). It is available in seas and estuaries of India, Ceylon and Bangladesh to throughout most of the Northern part of the Eastern Indian Ocean, western central pacific area and south ward to northern coasts of Australia, also westward to Karachi (Fishcher et al. 1974). Some other reports stated the evidence of L. calcarifer in Bangladesh (Rahman 1989), India (Kapoor et al. 2002), Pakistan (Bianchi 1985), Sri-lanka (Pethiyagoda 1991), Thailand (Yadav 1999) and East Africa (Kungvankij et al. 1986) have been found.

L. calcarifer is a diadromous species (Kungvankij et al. 1986), inhabiting rivers before returning to the estuaries to spawn. Larvae and young juveniles live in brackish temporary swamps associated with estuaries, and older juveniles inhabit the upper reaches of rivers (Allen et al. 2002). Some common habitats of L. calcerifer are the Bay of Bengal, commonly found in estuaries of Barishal, Patuakhali and Khulna of the south-western coastal region of Bangladesh (Rahman 1989).