Asian-Pacific Aquaculture 2019

June 19 - 21, 2019

Chennai Tamil Nadu - India

EFFECT OF STOCKING DENSITY ON GROWTH, PRODUCTION AND ECONOMICS OF Labeo bata FOR TABLE FISH PRODUCTION IN ICAR-CIFRI GI CAGES IN A FLOODPLAIN WETLAND

Dipesh Debnath*, Sona Yengkokpam, Pronob Das, B. K. Das, B. K. Bhattacharjya, A. K. Yadav, Niti Sharma, Simanku Borah, K. K. Sarma, B. C. Ray and A. Kakati
ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute
Regional Centre, Guwahati - 781006, India.
e-mail: dipesh.debnath@gmail.com
 

Labeo bata fingerlings were reared in ICAR-CIFRI GI-cages at five different stocking densities to evaluate the effect of stocking density on growth, production and economics for production of table sized fish. Fifteen ICAR-CIFRI GI-cages (cage dimension: 5 x 5 x 2 m each) were installed in Samaguri beel (floodplain wetland) of Nagaon district, Assam, India. The cages were stocked with L. bata fingerlings (av. length 11.93 cm; av. weight 13.05 g) at five different stocking densities i.e., 10 (S1), 20 (S2), 30 (S3), 40 (S4) and 50 fingerlings/m3 (S5) in triplicates. Fish were fed with floating feed containing 32 % CP @ 3-5% body weight twice-a-day for six months. With the increase in stocking density, the growth fish decreases. The specific growth rate at different stocking densities were: 1.03 (S1), 0.88 (S2), 0.84 (S3), 0.67 (S4) and 0.52 (S5). The corresponding weight gain percent were 533.33, 385.82, 353.26, 232.18 and 155.94 %. However, the highest biomass was achieved at stocking density of 30 fingerlings/m3 (71 kg/cage), which was significantly higher from S1 and S2 but similar with S4 and S5. Economics of rearing L. bata showed that B:C ratio was the highest at stocking density 30 fingerlings/m3 (1.44). Results of the present experiment indicated that L. bata stocked at lower densities had higher growth but a lower biomass, while stocking more than the optimum densities were not economical. Hence, a stocking density of 30 fingerlings/m3 can be considered optimum for producing table sized L. bata in ICAR-CIFRI GI-cages in the beels of Assam.