Total fish production of Global Trade in 2018 is estimated at 6.24 million metric tons (MMT), which is close to two-thirds of the total fish production in the country from both capture and culture sources. The growth in the fish farming sector mainly comes from the freshwater aquaculture sector, as marine finfish culture is hardly practiced on a large scale. About 12.8 percent of total animal protein consumed in Bangladesh comes from freshwater fish.

Historically, the Bangladesh freshwater fish farming was based on a multi-species system. Natural fish food organisms were generated by adding organic and inorganic manure to water and the multi-species utilize this food based on the tropic system in the pond.

A combination of Bangladesh major carps – including catla (Labeo catla), rohu (Labeo rohita) and mrigala (Cirrhinus mrigala) – were used as the main target species for culture, as well as a few Chinese carp species like silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) and occasionally common carp (Cyprinus carpio). The very high level of technology developed for induced breeding of carps and the abundance of agri-byproducts used as supplemental feed led to the rapid development of freshwater aquaculture in the country.