LARVAE CULTURE OF COBIA Rachycentron canadum IN OUTDOOR CONCRETE POND
Cobia (Rachycentron canadum) has fast growth, white and good quality of meat as well as valuable for sport fishing. Larval rearing of cobia in indoor concrete tank was done successfully with survival rate until juvenile (D25) was 10%. Therefore in order to find simple and cheap technology for dissemination to the fish farmer, we try to develop technology of cobia larvae culture in outdoor ponds. The goal of this trial is to know whether larval rearing of cobia can be done in the outdoor pond.
The trial was conducted in MCMA Lampung. Culture of larvae was performed in 100 m3 volume of outdoor concrete pond. There were two treatments of D1 larval stocking density, treatment A was 80 individual of larvae/m3 and treatment B was 100 individual of larvae/m3 . The pond surface was shaded with paranet in order to reduce sun light intensity as much as 50%. Aeration was supplied through a pipe network placed in the bottom of the pond. Phytoplankton, feeding schedule and water replacement was presented in Table 1.
The results showed that cobia larvae can be reared in outdoor concrete pond. Survival obtained at stocking density of 80 fish/m3 was 5.35%, while the stocking density of 100 fish/m3 was 8.27%. This result indicated larvae culture of the cobia in outdoor pond still need to improve.