Probe on spread of janitor fish sought

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Lito Lapid wants the Senate to investigate the proliferation of janitor fish in major water basins in the country.

In Senate Resolution 1020, Lapid wants the Senate committee on environment and natural resources and other appropriate committees to conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation into the rapidly increasing number of janitor fish infesting the country’s major basins.

He said janitor fish are seriously threatening the livelihood of thousands of fisherfolk.

Lapid wants to check with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on how it is addressing the infestation of janitor fish in the Marikina River, Lake Paitan in Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija and Laguna de Bay.

Reports also showed that janitor fish are seen in fresh bodies of water in Aparri in Cagayan, Zamboanga City, and the Agusan Marsh in Agusan del Sur.

In his resolution, Lapid said the country’s major basins play a significant role, “(providing) fish and other aquatic products and (supporting) other strategic economic activities such as transportation, recreation and tourism.”

Lapid is baffled as to how janitor fish, originally introduced in the early 1990s as an aquarium fish to clean algae, “escaped into our natural bodies of water.” 

As an algae eater, janitor fish compete for food supply with other marketable fish in rivers, causing the displacement of native species. 

“Its breeding behavior contributes to water turbidity since it creates deep burrows at the bottom of the lake and in riverbeds. Janitor fish compete for food with the native catfish, carp, mudfish, tarpons, mullets, tilapia, and other fish species found in Laguna de Bay. It also competes with bivalves and gastropods for food,” Lapid said in his resolution.

Lapid also expressed alarm that janitor fish have already spread to the Marikina River and Laguna de Bay and now poised to infest the ecosystem in Asia’a largest marshland, the Agusan Marsh.

He cited in his resolution the report of Marianne Hubilla,
a volunteer fishery researcher of the University of Philippines in the Visayas, and Ferenc Kis, a Hungarian consultant on wetland management, who discovered the spread of the janitor fish in the Agusan Marsh.

“It is important to highlight that in the case of the Laguna de Bay, which is located in the outskirts of eastern Manila and covers more than 90,000 hectares, tens of thousands of fishing families get their food and income from the bay,” he said.

The DENR has reported that there are currently two species of janitor fish found in the country — the Pterygoplichthys pardalis found in Marikina River and Lake Pitan in Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija, and the Pterygoplichthys disjunctivus found in Laguna de Bay.