AN EARLY EX-SITU ADAPTATION OF BARRED LOACH Nemacheillus fasciatus (Valenciennes, 1846)

Barred Loach Nemacheillus fasciatus (Valenciennes, 1846) is a potential local fish in Indonesia. Up to the present, the whole production have came from the natural catch. These conditions tend to decrease rapidly the natural stock. Domestication offers a promising solution for this problem. So far, there is no information about barred loach ex-situ adaptation as an early step of domestication. The present study aimed to investigate the adaptation process of barred loach on ex-situ, especially on environmental and artificial feed adaptation.

Barred Loach or  uceng were collected from Progo river, Temanggung region Central Java in September 2015. Barred loach then were placed to the aquarium recirculation system in Temanggung and Bogor. The observation on morphology characteristics of bareed loach showed that barred loach have a pair of barrels, tiny body shape and grey body line. Barred loach actively swim up and down. Barred loach prefers quiet and clear water with laminar water flow

Adaptation process was conducted at Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding Institute for Freshwater Aquaculture Research and Development Sempur Bogor and BBI Temanggung (Figure 1 and 2). Barred loach were reared in the aquarium with sand and stone substrate. Barred loach have adapted well in aquarium by active swimming motions and movements to dig in the sand substrate and showed low mortality rate on this rearing tank. Barred loach also respond well to floating feed by the active movement toward the feed and consuming the feed. The process of feed adaptation began with worms feed and followed by artificial feed/pellet.

Up to the present, barred loach collected from the Progo river have adapted and in good condition in the ex-situ aquarium and accepted artificial feed. This has affected the development of the gonads, So that the morphology and sex dimorphism could be observed.

The observation of the male and female barred loach showed that females have a larger body size, sharper body lines and pot-belly than male, whereas male have small body shape, faded body lines and slim-belly. The mature eggs color of barred loach was orange and the young one was bright yellow.