RAINBOW TROUT (Oncorhynchus mykiss) ALBINO BREED IN A RECIRCULATING AQUACULTURE SYSTEM  

Aquaculture industry has experienced considerable technological advances in methods of production and use of aquatic products. One aquatic organisms being studied because of its great potential is the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), which is considered suitable for aquaculture given its favorable characteristics as it's in terms of feed conversion efficiency, rapid development and adaptability. Derived from the interest of producers for new market opportunities the albino rainbow trout variety has been used as a result of commercial interests in ecotourism restaurants. Based on work done in other organisms it has been observed that there are differences between albino and so-called "normal rainbow trout" usually given by a poor performance in its growth. So it is important to know the assessments of the culture of this variety such as growth rates, feed conversion, Fulton factor, length - weight relationship, etc. . So the aim of this study was to measure the production efficiency of the albino variety of rainbow trout. A five months culture was carried out with albino rainbow trout at a Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) located in Central México. To measure production efficiency was a random sampling of organisms with 95 % confidence every 8 days, these biometric parameters were total length and weight. With the data collected the results were: growth rate in length of 0.24 cm/d, growth rate in weight of 4.42 g/d, feed conversion 1.166 and Fulton factor (K) of 0.0135. In conclusion, the development of the albino rainbow trout variety is suitable for production in a RAS; also development in these systems is similar to the so call "normal" variety.