FEASIBILITY OF INTEGRATED MULTITROPHIC PRODUCTION OF THE AMAZON RIVER PRAWN AND TAMBAQUI

The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of producing the Macrobrachium amazonicum (Amazon river prawn) with the Colossoma macropomum (Tambaqui) in integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) systems.

An experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with four treatments (types of production systems) and three replicates per treatment: prawn monoculture (30 prawn.m^-2); tambaqui monoculture (3 fish.m^-2); polyculture (30 prawn.m^-2 and 3 fish.m^-2) (IMTA-FREE) and polyculture with 30 prawn.m^-2 free and 30 fish.m^-3 in net cages (IMTA-CAGE). The prawn monocultures received dried pelleted feed for marine shrimp (35% CP). The tambaquis received a commercial diet extruded for omnivorous fish (45% CP) until they achieved a mass of 100 g. Then, the tambaquis received a 32% CP commercial diet until the end of the experimental period. The daily feeding rate ranged from 6% to 3% of the total biomass. The experimental period lasted five months.

The means of the final body mass, final body length, and productivity of the prawn from the monoculture were higher than those of the prawn in the polycultures. This indicates that the waste from the feed and fish feces was not sufficient for feeding the prawns. Prawn growth and productivity were similar when tambaquis were free or reared in cages, which suggests that there is no direct effect of the tambaqui presence on the prawn development. The productivity of the tambaquis in the IMTA-CAGE system was lower than the other production systems due to the lower number of fish stocked per pond. There was no significant difference observed for the survival of the tambaqui for all treatments, and for the mean final mass of the tambaquis between the monoculture and the IMTA-FREE systems. In conclusion, the two species are shown to be compatible for IMTA production systems. Further studies should be performed to determine the best proportion of each species in the system.