Influence of Stocking Density on Growth Performance of Labeo bata in Cage at River Padma, Rajshahi, Bangladesh

Abstract

As a result of climate change, aquaculturists are seeking adaptive culture techniques for sustainable aquaculture. In this case, cage culture is a suitable technique that can mitigate the challenge of climate change, but due to the lack of knowledge of proper stocking density, often productions are not satisfactory. Therefore, the experiment was conducted to evaluate the influence of stocking density on growth and production of an endangered minor carp bata (Labeo bata) in cages for a period of 120 days in Padma River, Rajshahi, Bangladesh. On an average initial weight of bata fingerling of 5 g was stoked in cages under three treatments each with containing three replications using three different stocking densities (106, 71 and 35 fingerling/m3 for T1, T2 and T3, respectively). Supplementary feed (3% per body weight) was given to the cultured species twice in a day. The mean values of water temperature, transparency, pH and dissolved oxygen were in suitable range throughout the experimental period. Significantly (p<0.05) highest mean gross weight (85.82±0.70 g), specific growth rate (2.37± 0.02%), survival rate (83± 3.00%) and food conversion ratio (2.27± 0.03) was found in T3 rather than T2 and T1. The net production in terms of biomass (18.23±2.43 kg/cage) was significantly (p<0.05) higher in T2.The study suggests that, treatment T2 (71 fingerling /m3) as the optimum stocking density to produce maximum production by cage culture of Labeo bata.

Feeding frequency on the growth and production of endemic near-threatened Ompok pabda (Hamilton 1822) in pond setup

“…The maximum value was recorded with the T 1 in the fourth months. Samad et al (2021) suggested the temperature in the culture setup were 28.50°C among the treatments while Nahar et al (2021) found temperature fluctuated between 25.01 and 26.13°C; on the other hand Shajib et al (2018) showed the temperature could be ranged between 25.25 and 27.50 °C in hapa set up was found to be suitable for fish growth, as better weight gain and lower FCR were recorded during this period. The amount of dissolved oxygen in water is another key water quality characteristic that fish rely on to survive (Makori et al, 2017).…”

“…In the winter month the oxygen content of the aquaculture pond were less than in the summer months. Samad et al (2021) suggested the dissolved oxygen (DO) level in cage culture might be fluctuated between 5.48 ± 0.02 and 5.72 ± 0.11 mg/l; while the average DO level ranged between 5.02±0.45 and 5.27±0.60 mg/l in small catfish aquaculture pond reported by Nahar et al (2021). On the other hand a poly culture setup suggested that the DO might fluctuated between 5.29±0.27 and 5.93±0.66 mg/l (Zafar et al, 2017).…”

“…To put it another way, nutritionally balanced meals and sufficient feeding are the most important criteria for successful aquaculture operations (Boyd et al, 2020;Klinger and Naylor, 2012). Previous study of feeding frequencies and production emphasized on different aquaculture species including, Labeo rohita, Catla catla, Labeo bata, Mystus cavasius, Clarias batrachus, Amblypharyngodon mola, Chela cachius, Puntius sophore, Heteropneustes fossilis, Notopterus chitala, Mylopharyngodon piceus (Hasan et al, 2002;Mondal et al, 2020a;Nahar et al, 2021;Samad et al, , 2021Samad and Imteazzaman, 2019;Samad et al, 2017a;Samad and Bhuiyan, 2017;Samad et al, 2017b;Samad et al, 2017a); while a single study described the feeding frequency of pabda fish from India but they dealt with the fry (juvenile stage), and no aquaculture feeding frequency of this species were found (Paul et al, 2014). The present study was undertaken with a view to study the growth response of the fish fed on a formulated standard diet at different feeding frequencies.…”