Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) has emerged as an economically important species in China’s freshwater aquaculture. Conventionally, traditional pond culture (TP) is a predominant method to rear largemouth bass in China. However, TP is associated with various shortcomings such as high stocking densities, limited swimming space, inadequate water circulation, poor water quality, and impeded water flow. Thus, it poses a substantial hurdle to the sustainable development of the aquaculture industry. Currently, recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), a major advancement in sustainable aquaculture, have been widely employed to cultivate different fish species for high-density intensive aquaculture, reducing water usage, improving emission control, and minimizing environmental pollution.
With the sustainable development of the aquaculture industry, ensuring the quality of commercially important fish species has become equally crucial. Thus, the present study was conducted to explore the impact of TP and RAS on growth performance, color, textural properties, and nutritional composition of largemouth bass (Fig. 1). It was observed that weight gain, viscerosomatic index, and survival rate of fish in RAS group was higher compared to pond samples. Whereas the final length, specific growth rate, and condition factor were similar in both groups. Hardness was higher in pond samples, but other textural parameters, color values, pH, and conductivity presented insignificant differences. The volatile composition, amino acid, and fatty acid profiles of RAS and pond samples were significantly different. Geosmin, an organic compound responsible for the earthy smell in fish, was absent in both groups. Cadmium and lead were not detected in fish from both groups, whereas Fe was significantly higher in fish from the pond compared to RAS samples. In case of amino acids, samples from RAS presented high levels of essential amino acids. Moreover, pond-raised largemouth bass have higher levels of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids compared to those raised in RAS systems.
Overall, the output of this study revealed that both TP and RAS resulted in high-quality, nutritionally rich largemouth bass. Thus, RAS can be employed as a viable and preferable option for cultivating high-quality largemouth bass owing to its distinct advantages of high production efficiency, sustainability, and long-term viability.