The pla salit has very small scales and feeds on plants. Since it prefers still water, in the past farmers raised it by digging a shallow pond and planting it with rushes or aquatic grass. Then, before releasing baby fish hatched in a separate pond into it, the farmer would cut the plants and let them decay in the water. The rotting vegetation would nourish the plankton in the water, the food preferred by the baby fish, which would then proliferate. When the fish were put into the pond, they would have plenty to eat and reach marketable size after about eight months