Studies on the growth of Lates calcarifer cultured in coastal

ponds and net cages in the three different places at Tuticorin

showed an increase of 16.2-23.2 mm/ 18.6- 53.2 g/ month at

Karapad, 21.1-29.8mm/19.3- 36.3 g / month at Veppalodai in

coastal ponds and 21.6-32.4 mm/ 31.4-55.0 g / month in a net

cage in the Tuticorin Bay. The growth in Karapad pond, where

supplementary feed was provided was better than in Veppalodai

pond. The highest growth rate was obtained in net cage culture

at Tuticorin Bay. Length-frequency analysis of samples from

commercial catch reveal a faster growth in the wild than in the

culture systems. The better growth in the brackishwater culture

and in the wild is attributed to the lower salinity and better

live feed availability in brackishwater. In the pond system, the

growth can be improved by maintaining proper water exchange

so as to maintain the salinity equivalent to open sea/bay/

brackishwaters and by providing supplementary feed

Ameer Hamsa, K M S

Kasim, H M

Marichamy, R

Rajapackiam, S

Rengaswamy, V S

CMFRI Digital Repository

Marine Research and Management Editors V.N. Pillai and N.G. Menon Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) Tatapuram P.O., Cochin-682 014 Kerala, India 2000 C pf Culture of the sea bass Lates calcarifer R. Marichamjr, H. Mohamad Kasim, V. S. Rengaswamy, K.M.S Ameer Hamsa and S. Rajapackiam ABSTRACT Studies on the growth of Lates calcarifer cultured in coastal ponds and net cages in the three different places at Tuticorin showed an increase of 16.2-23.2 mm/ 18.6- 53.2 g/ month at Karapad, 21.1-29.8mm/19.3- 36.3 g / month at Veppalodai in coastal ponds and 21.6-32.4 mm/ 31.4-55.0 g / month in a net cage in the Tuticorin Bay. The growth in Karapad pond, where supplementary feed was provided was better than in Veppalodai pond. The highest growth rate was obtained in net cage culture at Tuticorin Bay. Length-frequency analysis of samples from commercial catch reveal a faster growth in the wild than in the culture systems. The better growth in the brackishwater cul-ture and in the wild is attributed to the lower salinity and better live feed availability in brackishwater. In the pond system, the growth can be improved by maintaining proper water exchange so as to maintain the salinity equivalent to open sea/bay/ brackishwaters and by providing supplementary feed. Introduct ion The seabas s , Lates calcarifer is an economically impor tan t food fish as the flesh is delicately flavoured and it grows to a large size. Hence it is also known as the giant perch in the countr ies of the tropical and sub-tropical a reas of the Western Pacific and Indian oceans . Though the s e a b a s s is widely d is t r ibu ted along the coas t s of Aus t ra l ia , Thai land, Burma, India, Indonesia , Malaysia, Singapore and Phi l ippines , th i s does not form a good fishery in many count r ies . This has prompted the . re -sea rchers and fish farmers in countr ies like Thai land, Malaysia and Sin-gapore to cu l ture this species under different cu l ture sys tems . In India, C8TF^ Culture of the sea bass Lates calcarifer this euryhaline and eurythermal species forms a fishery In Chllka Lake and also In Pulicat lake. A wealth of Information Is available on the biol-ogy and ecology of this fish (Jones and Sujanslnganl, 1954; Jhlngran et al, 1963; Jhlngran and Natarajan, 1966 ; Patnalk and Jena, 1976). The procurement of breeders, the pattern of growth and reproduction of this species in the wild have also been studied by De (1971), Ghosh (1973), Naldu (1939), Chacko (1956), Plllay (1954), Rao (1964), and Kowatl (1977). While earliest studies on the culture methods and growth In different cul-ture practices have been made by Plllay, (1954); Plllay and Bose, (1957); Ghosh, (1971); Jhlngran, (1977); Prasadam et al. (1984); James and Marichamy, (1987). Pond culture Three monoculture experiments were carried out with Lates calcarifer, two in ponds and one in net cage. The first experiment was carried out in a coastal pond at Karapad with an area of 0.25 ha and an average depth of 1 m. The pond bottom was mostly muddy and to a limited extent sandy. The seeds were collected from Pazhayakayal backwaters located 25 km south of Tuticorin, at the end of January, 1987 and were stocked at the rate of 1200 seeds / ha on 3rd February, 1987. Suplementary feed was provided in the form of live-feeds like 7,900 numbers weighing 4.4kg of fry of Liza macrolepis, 6500 numbers of young ones of Penaeus indicus weigh-ing 2.6kg and 350 numbers of Chanos chanos weighing 0.2kg along with 350 kg of trashflsh and 252 kg of groundnut oil cake. At the time of stocking, the size of Lates seed varied from 92 to 150 mm, with an average weight of 18.6 g. The stock was sampled every month for assessing the growth. The gain in length and weight in subsequent months from Febru-ary onwards indicate a slow growth in length upto 6 months,^ it was moder-ate upto 8 months and then it was faster. Similarly, the growth in weight was also slow upto 6 months, thereafter it was much faster till 9th month. The data on the hydrologlcal parameters from the culture sites are given in Table 1. Marine Fisheries Research and Management 26.5-29.0 30.2-37.0 4.0-5.2 26.3-28.5 31.5-34.9 4.0-5.5 Table 1. The Hydrological observations made at culture sites. SI. No. Water Qualities Karapad Coastal pond Veppalodai Coastal Tuticorin Bay Net Cage (Range) Pond (Range) (Range) 1. WaterTemperature°C25.7-30.7 2. Salinity ppt. 32.0-46.5 3. Oxygen Content ml/1 4.4-5.6 4. pH 8.2-8.5 7.2-8.1 7.8-8.2 The monthly growth increment in length and weight are given in Ta-ble 2. The increment in length declined from February, 87 onwards and reached the lowest in August and then increased in September and No-vember, whereas there was a marginal increase in weight from February up to August and then the increase in weight was very good reaching a maximum rate of 53.2 g / month. The lower growth increment in length and weight during March to August may be attributed to the higher at-mospheric temperature and salinity. In the beginning of Novemeber 87 the experiment suffered a severe setback due to loss of stock by poaching. Table 2. The trend of growth at different stages observed in coastal pond at Karapad. Date 03.02.87 06.03.87 09.04.87 06.05.87 29.06.87 04.08.87 30.09.87 04.11.87 Days Stock 31 65 92 145 182 239 274 Size Length (mm) 92-150 118-165 128-182 130-195 148-242 170-260 210-305 265-465 Range Weight (g) 10-30 20-80 26-90 28-130 60-250 95-320 110-480 250-1250 Growth rate per month Length (mm) -22.4 18.6 16.2 15.1 14.8 17.2 23.2 Weight (g) -18.7 18.6 20.6 22.3 24.2 31.2 53.2 The second experiment was carried out in a coastal pond with an area of 0.3 ha at Veppalodai located abount 25 km north of Tuticorin. The -<;'82?r> Culture of the sea bass hates calcarifer seed were collected at the end of January^94 from Pazhayakayal backwa-ters and stocked on 3.2.94 at the rate of 1700/ha. Average depth of the pond was 1.25 m and the pond bottom was muddy. At the time of stocking the size range in length was 31-125 mm, with an average of 75.5 mm, and the weight varied from 3.5 to 18 g, with an average of 8 g. Samples were taken in May, June, September and December and the growth rate in length and weight at Veppalodal were simlldr to that obtained at Karapad pond till the stock attained a size of 250 mm In 8 months. Afterwards, the stock in the coastal pond showed better growth in length and weight. The reason may be that the Veppalodal stock was not raised on supplementary feed, as was done In Karapad. The growth increment data, given in Table 3, showed that the length rate conflnued to decline in subsequent months from 30 to 21 mm. The weight increment at Veppalodal was not as good as It was at Karapad in the last two months. The stock was harvested on 9.1.95. The survival rate was 41.2% with a production of 300kg / ha. As seed of seabass was not adequately available for stocking, the rate of stock-ing was far below the optimum. This experiment was aimed to see the suitability of the environment for farming. The rate of production could be easily raised to 2 t with optimum stocking of 5000 seeds / ha in this environment, besides proper farm management such as improving the feed-ing schedule, regulation of water etc.. Table 3. The trend of growth at different stages observed in coastal pond at Veppalodal. Date 03.02.94 06.05.94 30.06.94 29.12.94 09.01.95 Days Stock 90 150 330 340 Size Range Length (mm) 31-125 114-285 145-325 245-415 245-415 Weight (g) 3.5-18 20.0-300 30.0-460 190.0-880 220.0-920 Growth rate per month Length (mm) -29.8 24.0 21.1 20.8 Weight (g) -19.3 23.1 35.8 36.3 Net cage culture A rectangular net cage of size 5m x 5m x 2m was fabricated with 4 mm HDPE monofilament thread, with stretched mesh size of 20 mm. The cage was suspended in the Tuticorin Bay at a depth of 2.5 m by fastening "827 Marine Fisheries Research and Management to 6 numbers of 7.5m palmyrah poles fixed at the bay bottom. Seed of Lates calcarijer measuring 125-180 mm with an average size of 145 mm and weight varying from 18 to 70 g with a mean of 37.3.g were stocked In the cage at the rate of 0.5 seed / m^. The seed were fed with trash fish such as sllverbelUes, engrauUds and sardines at the rate of 8% of the total weight of the stock. The stock was sampled every month except in Octo-ber '88 and January '89 and the trend of growth is given In Table 4. The growth data indicate that the growth in length is better here than at Veppalodal and Karapad. The growth Increment In length and weight are comparatively better than that obtained in pond culture at Veppalodal and Karapad. Growth in wild condition Length frequency data of samples from the commercial landings of Punnakayal during February '96 to January '97 were analysed as per Alagaraja (1984) . The Loo is estimated to be 1241 mm and K, O. 275/yr. Accordingly Lates is estimated to attain a size of 292, 514, 631 and 810 mm in 1, 2, 3 and 4 years respectively. This observation is similar to that reported by Kasim and James (1987) from the Chilka lake. Table4. Trend of growth at different stages observed in cage culture at Tuticorin Bay. Date 25,08.88 24.09.88 05.11.88 23.12.88 06.02.89 23.03.89 02.05.89 Days Stock 30 72 120 165 210 250 Size Length (mm) 125-180 152-220 192-250 225-295 268-325 282-340 296-350 Range Weight (g) 18-70 42-120 80-230 150-295 250-440 270-520 305-625 Growth rate per month Length (mm) 32.4 30.5 29.3 2.61 24.0 21.6 Weight (g) 31.4 37.5 45.9 53.4 52.8 55.0 Discussion Though Lates calcarijer can be profitably cultured in ponds, net cages and pens, available information on the culture of this species re-veals that this species is not subjected to any such organised culture in "822 Culture pf the sea bass Lates calcarlfer this territory. Most of the culture practices in the country are either tra-ditional or sustenance in nature. Information on stocking densities, feed-ing practices, environmental monitoring and other farm management prac-tices is totally lacking but for a few details on survival and production rate. Pillay (1954) reported that seabass fry that entered the ponds at 2-5 cm size during rainy season, attained a size of about 12.5cm by Octo-ber-November and grew to a size of 25 cm in the second year, whereas Pillay and Bose (1957) observed a faster growth from 12.9cm in September to 21.5cm in October and 36.4cm in November in paddy fields in West Bengal and this was attributed to the availability of forage fish as food. Similar faster growth was observed by Ghosh (1971) in freshwater pond culture, from a stocking size of 30-205 mm, to an average size of 253 mm in one year. Prior to stocking of the seed, the pond was stocked with several yarltles of forage fish to serve as food for Lates. The present study also reveals that the wild growth of seabass is faster than In both the pond and cage culture systems, being 308 mm in 330 days from 145 mm in the ponds at Veppalodai, 330 mm from 118 mm in 274 days in the powds at Karapad and 325 mm from 75 mm in Just 250 days reared in net cage In Tuticorin Bay. Growth in net cage was much better than the pond-reared Lates. This could be possible due to the better water quality in the open bay than in the ponds where the depth and the rate of water exchange de-pended mainly on the tidal influx. Jhingran (1977) recorded a gross production of 2759.5kg/ha in 8 months by rearing Lates in feeder canals and this was possible because of the surplus natural food organisms like prawn fry and fish brought in by the tidal water. In the present observations, Lates fed with prawn fry and fish grew fast In pond and faster in the net cage. Prasadam et al. (1984) while trying to culture the seabass in pen and cage in the lagoon system of Pullcate lake, found that the fingerllngs stocked at 142mm/80g In velon cages in September 1983 grew to 164 mm/339g and 208mm/496g in a period of 14 months with survival rate of 50-55% . James and Marichamy (1987) have reported that young Lates stocked at an average size of 217mm in March 1983 and reared on supplementary feed of frozen trash fish at 10% of the body weight have grown to 424mm/818g in a period of 16 months. In another experiment the stock released at 285 mm In Septem-ber 1984 attained 512 mm/953g In 17 months duration and the monthly growth rate varied from 10 to 17 mm and weight Increase of 20 to 80 g In these size groups. The growth recorded by other workers on thi% species In net cages was more or less similar to that observed by James and •"823" Marine Ftgheries Reaearch and Management M a r i c h a m y ( 1 9 8 7 ) . T h e g r o w t h In s i ze a n d w e i g h t In t h e p r e s e n t s t u d y w a s 1 6 . 2 - 2 3 . 2 m m / 1 8 . 6 - 5 3 . 2 g / m o n t h a t K a r a p a d , 2 1 . l - 2 9 . 8 m m / 1 9 . 3 -3 6 . 3 g / m o n t h a t V e p p a l o d a i a n d 2 1 . 6 - 3 2 . 4 m m / 3 1 . 4 - 5 5 . O g / m o n t h In t h e n e t c a g e a t T u t l c o r i n . W h e n c o m p a r e d t o b r a c k l s h w a t e r g r o w t h r a t e , p r e s e n t r e s u l t s a r e lower , s i n c e t h e s a l i n i t y of t h e p o n d r e m a i n e d h igh , 3 2 . 0 to 4 6 . 5 p p t a t K a r a p a d , 3 0 . 2 to 3 7 p p t a t V e p p a l o d a i a n d from 3 1 . 5 to 3 4 . 9 p p t In T u t l c o r i n B a y . In p o n d s y s t e m t h e g r o w t h of bates c a n b e I m p r o v e d by p r o v i d i n g a b e t t e r w a t e r e x c h a n g e t h a t w o u l d m a i n t a i n t h e s a l i n i t y e q u i v a l e n t to t h e b a y / o p e n s e a a n d by t h e s u p p l y of f r e sh t r a s h f ish a s s u p p l e m e n t a r y feed. References Alagaraja. K. 1984. Simple method for estimation of parameters for assessing exploited fish stocks. Indian J. Fish., 31 (2) : 177-208. Chacko, P.I. 1956. Observations on the biology and ecology of the inland water fishes of Madras with special reference to their suitability for culture. Government of Madras Fisheries Station Report and Yearbook 1954-55, 247-70. DE, O.K. 1971. On the biology of postlarvae juvenile stages of Lates calcarifer (Bloch). Journal of the Indian Fisheries Association, 1 (2) : 51 -64. Ghosh, A. 1971. Observation on the acclimatisation and growth of "Bhekti" Lates calcarifer (Bloch) in freshwater ponds. Journal of the Inland Fisheries Socity of India, 3:123-124. Ghosh, A. 1973. Observations on the larvae Eind Juveniles of "bhekti" Lates calcarifer (Bloch) from the Hoogly Matlah estuarine system. Indian J. Fish., 20 (2) : 372-379. James, P.S.B.R. emd R. Marichamy, 1987. Status of seabass (Lates calcarifer) culture in India. Proc. of an International workshop held at Darwin, N.T., Australia, 24-30, September, 1986. ACIAR proceedings No. 20 : 74-79 p. Jones,S. and K.H. Sujansingani. 1954. Fish and fisheries of the Chilka Lake with statistics offish catches for the years 1948-50. Indian J. Fish, 1(1&2) : 256-344. Jhlngran, V.G. 1963. Report on the fisheries of the Chilka Lake, 1957-60 Bulletin of the Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, No. 1. Jhlngran, V.G. and A.V. Natarajan. 1966. Final report on the fisheries of the Chilka Lake during the period 1957-65. Bulletin of the Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute No.8. 12 p. Jhlngran, V.G. 1969. A study of the fisheries and fish populations of the Chilka Lake during Cnlture of the sea basa Lates calcarifer the period 1957-65. Journal of the Inland Fisheries Socity of India 1 : 49-126. Jhlngran, V.G. 1977. A note on the progress of work under coordinated project on brackishwater fish farming ICAR. Central Inland Fisheries Research Instttute. 1-9. Kasim, H.M. and P.S.B.R. James 1987. Distribution and fishery of Lates calcari/erin India : Proceedings of an international workshop held at Darwin, N.T.., Australia, 24-30 September 1986. ACIAR Proceedings No. 20 : 109-114. Kowtal, G.V. 1977. Some observations on the breeding of Lates calcarifer (Bloch) from Chllka Lake. Journal of the Inland Society of India. 9: 191-192. Naidu, M.R. 1939. Report on a survey of the fisheries of Bengal. Superintendent. Govt. Print-ing Bengal Govt. Press, Alipore. Patnaik, S. and S. Jena. 1976. Some aspects of biology of Lates calcart/er (Bloch) from Chllka Lake. IndianJ. Fish.. 23 (1&2) : 65-71 PiUay, T.V.R. 1954. The ecology of a brackishwater "bhekti" with special reference to the fish culture practices and the blotlc interaction. Proceedings of the National Institute of Science. India 20 (4) : 399-427. Pillay, T.V.R. and B. Bose. 1957. Observations on the culture of brackishwater fishes in paddy fields in West Bengal, India. Proceedir\gs Indo-Pac^ Fish. Council, 7 : 187-192. Prasadam, R.D. , K.V. Ramakrishna and K. Raman. 1984. Pen and cage culture of fish and prawns in lagoon ecosystem (PuUcate/Ennore) 1982-85. Central IrUand Fish. Res. Inst, Barrackpore. Annual Report 1984. Rao, N.G.S. 1964. Distribution of larvae and juvenile fishes in Mahanadi estuary. IndianJ. Fish.. 14 (1) ; 407-422. < 8 2 5 ~ ^ 

Culture of the sea bass Lates calcarifer

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Culture of the sea bass Lates calcarifer

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