Bangladesh is a country with thousands of rivers and ponds, and is notable as a fish-loving nation, acquiring the name machh-e bhat-e Bangali (which means, "Bengali by fish and rice").
Ilish is the national fish of the country, and contributes 13% of country's total fish production. Fish are both caught from the wild and farmed in artificial ponds.
Bengali also has a generic term for three related fish species from the family Polynemidae. A lakkha fish (à ¦²à ¦¾à ¦Âà §Âà ¦·à ¦¾ à ¦®à ¦¾à ¦Â) may be Eleutheronema tetradactylum, Leptomelanosoma indicum or Polydactylus sexfilis. Another example is that of tengra (à ¦Âà §Âà ¦Âà ¦°à ¦¾) which is used to denote several species of catfishes from the families Mystus and Batasio.
Bengali has multiple synonyms for a single species and a single word for multiple species (a generic term) as shown in the list below.