Pejerrey is an important zooplanktivorous native ¢sh of the Argentinean inland waters. It has been traditionally propagated for stocking purposes by relatively costly semi-intensive and intensive methods. In this study, we evaluated the implementation of an extensive culture method by using £oating cages in a shallow pampean lake. Four cages were installed in the Lacombe Lake and stocked with juveniles (16.24 AE 1.69 mm length) at 50 ¢sh m À 3 density for growing until the size of 150 mm, which is considered as a suitable size for stocking. Throughout the experiment, the temperature ranged between 10 and 26 1C and the zooplankton biomass ranged between 12 and 3269 mg dw L À 1 . The growth patterns in the length were similar in the four cages and directly related to the lake thermal conditions and zooplankton availability. The average ¢nal length after 315 days was 154.4 AE 8.8 mm. The survival rates ranged between 53.5% and 64.7% during the ¢rst 110 days and 11.1^25.7% at termination. Growth rate for the ¢rst 2 months was the highest documented for pejerrey culture. This simple technique o¡ers the possibility to produce juvenile pejerrey at a low cost and provides the alternative of reinforcing the natural populations with ¢sh already adapted to the natural environmental conditions. Aquaculture Research, 2010, 41, e376^e384 Floating cage culture of pejerrey in pampean lakes D C Colautti et al.

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