The red algae Gracilaria edulis, Hypnea valenliae, Acanthophora spicifera ard Sarconema

irdica have been observed to occur arrl grow in a culture pard. Ove- a period

of eight month s, the algae grew to lJ4 kg in the pard of 800 sq m. The hyd rological

cordilions in the porn are compared to those in the sea containing natursl beds of these

algae during the periro of observations. This occurrence ard growth may open up the

,,4. possibility of growing these algae in culture pards providing the requisite hyd rological

ard nutrient corditions

Bensam, P

Gandhi, V

Kaliaperumal, N

Kalimuthu, S

Muniyandi, K

Raju, A

Ramalingam, J R

Rangasamy, V S

CMFRI Digital Repository

OCCURRENCE AND GROWTH (F THE CDMMERCIALL Y IIvPORTANT RED ALGAE IN A FISH CU.-TURE POND AT MANDAPAM * • P. Bensam , N. Kaliaperumal, V. Gardhi, A. Raju, v.s. Rangasamy, S. Kali muthu, J.R. RamaJingsm ard K. Muniyardi Regional Centre of Central Marine fisheries Research Inst itute, Marine Fisheries-62 3 520, In::tia Present A:::Idress : Central Marine fisheries Research Institute, Cochin-682 031, trdis Abstract The red algae Gracilaria edulis, Hypnea valenliae, Acanthophora spicifera ard Sarco-nema irdica have been observed to occur arrl grow in a culture pard. Ove- a peri od of eight months, the algae grew to lJ4 kg in the pard of 800 sq m. The hyd rological cordilions in the porn are compared to those in the sea containing natursl bed s of these algae during the periro of observations. This occurrence ard growth may open up the ,,4. possibility of growing these algae in culture pard s providing the requisite hyd rological ard nutrient corditions. Introduction A few !pecies of the commerciall y important agar yielding red algae of the genus Gracilaria are cultured in pom s in Taiwan, as reported by Chen (1976) . In lroia, Gracilaria verrucosa (Hudson) Papenfuss has been known to occur in fish cul ture pards at Muttukaiu near Mooras (Chennubhotla ard Kaliaperumal, 1987). But there has been no record on the occurrence ard growth of the more important species Gracilaria edulis (Gmelin) Silva in culture pom s, although it is abundantly present in the sea along the southeast coast of Irdia (Kaliaperumal ~ ~ 1987). Since this species is not reporled to occur 50 far in any environment other than the sea, the observations maj e at Mamapam during 1987· 1988 on the occurrence ard growth of this species in a culture pard may be of inte rest (J)!Mvations The pard in which ~. eduli s ard other algae we re observed to occur an::I grow is situated at about 200 m away from the sea, along the P alk Bay side of Mardapam (figure 1, denoted by the numeral '18') . The pard was excava t .uring 1980, its embank-ments were const ructed and it was subjected to engineering experiments along with ten other pords during 1980-8J (Bensam, 1985). It is 40 m long, 20 m wide ard 1 m deep. Sea water supply to the pord has been effected through a diesel engine pump with 8 Seaweed Res. Uti In 1 3(2): 101 - 108 Tmle 1 - [~mllled Ire .. wei~ 01 red algae in Pard NoJ 8 01 the n .. r .. m III Mardapam during 1987-8&. Sterding crop of algae (wet weight in kg) in the months of sampling Name of the Aug. '87 Oct. '87 Dec. '87 March 'BB May '88 species Removed during Left over in harvest of f ish pond Gracilaria edulls 0.5 2.0 5.0 B.O 1.0 2.0 Sarconem~~ Trace 2.0 4.0 5 .0 2.0 5.0 AC8ntho~hor8 2.0 10.0 40.0 50.0 20.0 30.0 spicifera H~~ne8 valenti ae 1.5 4.0 10.0 14.0 4.0 10.0 Total 4 .0 1 B.O ~9.0 77.0 27.0 47.0 , T .. 1e 2 - Monthly me ... values of some hydrological par_en In culture Pard No.lI at the fi .. rarm (CP), in the Gulf of M ........ (GM) ani the Palk Bay (PB) ad joining the fI .. r arm Water temp. (Ge) pH Salinit y (1'0 . ) Dissolved oxygen (ml/I) Month ep GM PB ep GM PB CP GM PB CP GM PB October '87 28.8 28.9 28.3 7.8 8. 3 7.7 31.5 32.9 33.0 3.3 5.9 5.2 November 31.4 27.8 29.9 7.8 8. 3 8.1 2 1.0 32 .6 3 1.0 4 .1 4.6 4.1 December 27.1 26.4 28.0 7.0 8.2 7.9 21.0 27.9 28.0 3.6 3.8 4.1 Januar y 188 25.3 25.3 25.3 8.1 8.2 7.6 24.0 29.3 25.5 3.7 4.4 4.4 february 30.6 25.9 30.2 8.0 8.3 8.0 33.5 3 1.8 25.0 1.5 4.6 5. 1 MRrch 30.1 29.2 29.8 7.8 8.3 7.8 34.0 33.1 29.0 1.8 4.5 5.4 April 32.4 30.1 31.5 7.7 8.3 8.0 34.0 33.0 28.5 1.5 3.9 4.4 104 suction line having a diameter of 7.5 em ard del ive ry line with a .diameter of 5.0 em. Experiment al culture of Milkfi sh, Chanes chanos was taken up in the porn from the month of April 1983. From 1983 to July 1987, there was no growth of any macroalgae in the pord. In the other pards also there has been no occurrence of such algae. The occurrence of macroalgae in pord 18 was fi rst noticed in August 1987, after stocking the pard with Milk fi.n during June 1987. In a:lditian to ~. edulis, the other I commercially valuable algaP. fcurd to occur an::! grow in the pard are Sarconema iroica, Acanthophora spicifera an:! Hypnea valentiae. Apart from these red algae, a green alga, Chaetomorpha ~, a blue-green alga, Lyngbya maiuscula aro a seagrass Halophila avaHs were also fcurd to occur am grow in the pard . Since these algae served as the foext of the fi sh stocked in the pam, these were left um isturbed except on the days of monthly sampling of the fish am at the time of fish harvest. The gross growth of algae was monitored periodicall y by ram am sampling from 1 sq m area at ten locations in the pard by calculating the wet weight of each species in the samples am by est imating the weight of each species for the tot al pard area. The height of the plants for .,2,.. edulis was also estimated . In March 1988, the Milkfish stocked in the pam were harvested ard along with the fish a quantity of 77 kg of algae was removed from the pam. The estimated periooical stan:!ing c rop of the algae for four species during 1987-88 is presented in Table 1. As may be seen from Table 1,.2: eduli s has registe red a grow th inc rement from 0.5 kg in August to 9 kg in March in the pard of 800 sq m over a period of 8 months, at a growth rate of 0.05 g/day/sq m. The mean length of ~. edu li s plant s was 3.4, 6.5, 9.8, 16.7 am ~.} cm when the sampling was ma:1e du ri ng August , October, December, March am t'v'ay respective ly. The increase in weight of G. edu li s is without taking into account the browsing of algae by fish stocked in the pam , numbering 320 in June, 1987. Milkfish is known to feed upon red algae such as Gracilaria in the Philippines (Bardach ~ ~ 1972). Among the other algae, the highest growth was recorded by Acanthophora spicifera amounting to 70 kg fresh weight · followed by Hypnea valenti ae (18 kg) ard Sarconema irdica (7 kg) over eight months, without taking into account the browsi ng by the fi sh stocked. Obviously these algae have enter~ the pard through the water being pumped in for the cul ture of Milk fi sh. It may be noted in this connection that sea wate r was pumped into the other pards also situated near pan:! No. 18 (Fig. 1); but in none of the other pards these algae have established am grown. Physical ex amination of ~ edulis growing in the pard has shown that the texture of plants was rough when compared wi th the specimens co llected from the a:1joining seas. The hydrological parameters am nutrients in the pam urder obser vation are presented in Table 2 am 3. These parameters were de termined for both Palk Bayard Gulf of Mannar for comparison. There was no marked vari ation in the values obtained for water temperature an:! pH. The salinity values in the pam have gone down duri ng November , Tobie J - Monthly mean value. of _11_. In culture Pan! No.lII at the Flo" F_ (CP). In the Gulf of .......... r (GM) ani the Palk Bay (PB) &:IloIning the FlIh F_rn. Phosphate SIlicate Nitrite Nitrate ( 9 at/l) ( gat/I) ( gat/I) ( 9 atIL) I Month CP GM PB CP GM PB CP GM PB CP GM PB October '87 0.11 0.07 0.12 16.50 9. 30 19.50 0.48 0.50 0.15 4.75 1.00 1.75 November 0.60 0.05 0. 15 17.50 5 .50 15. 30 O.oJ 0.19 0.20 0.44 1.5J 2.J8 December 0.09 0.05 0.18 12.00 J.66 8.50 0.07 0.12 0.07 3.25 1.75 1.1J January '88 0.12 0.08 0.15 f+.00 7.J O 10.50 0.02 0.02 0.!l4 1.88 0.92 4.00 february 0.55 0.!l4 0. 1J 8.25 5.70 9.00 0. 15 0.04 0.08 3.00 2.16 J.88 March 0.09 O. f+ 0.!l4 16.00 6.70 16.00 0.20 0. 15 0.1J 1.1J 1.JO l.J8 April 0.15 0.10 O. '(I 29.00 9.50 10.50 0.11 0.17 0.06 1.00 1.00 0 .75 -5l 106 ~~lJ.(J.f1i' I ~ I ~l !ii} I ., I  ~ a·, PALK BAY ' f (,, - /-: Lab~rY HOOSE ~ I !i IAl.-t.1J-iIfld DO N DO:7 ~ I DD~/ DO 18 DoDU • ODv" 0[7 PA~ lAY 0 L7 I ~'" fiSH fARM-" I 0 II: 8U~~ Of' MMIIAR Fig. 1. P lan of the pord site; the pord stLdied is marked '1 B', 107 am December, '87 recording values less than in both the seas obviously due to northeast monsoon rains during the perioo. Ouring rebruary-April, '88 the salinity was high because of evaporation of pord water urder summer cordition. The values obtained for dissolved oxygen in the pord were lower particularly from February to April than tho... obtained from the adjoining 5ebS. In general, the rkJtrlert values were comparatively high in the pard when compared with the seas, probably due to rice bran ard oil cake supplied to the Mlkfish stocked am due to exogenous prcx:iucts of the organisms growing in the pard. Apart from the off-bottom culture of Gracilaria urdertaken in some countries, inclw-ing experimental culture in Irdia (CherYlUbhotla !!...!!.. 1987), bottom culture of certain species is carried out in Taiwan (Chen, 1976). The principal species cultured are Gracilaria ~.Q.- compressa,..0 edulis ard ~ verrucosa of which the last one is the most common. Cuttings of the algae are planted at the bottom uniformly by fixing them to bamboo sticks or covered with used fishing nets to prevent them from drifting. Organic or inorganic fertilizers are used in the pord to accelerate the growth of Gracilaria. 3000 to 5000 kg of the fragmented plants are planted in a pord of one hectare size. Generally 70000 to 84000 kg of wet Gracilaria are prc:duced from one hectare pord annually. The growth rate of G. edulis in the present study can be compared with the results obtained with the plants of ~ edulis occurred in the natural environment ard cultivated on coi r rope nets in the near shore areas of Mardapam (Umamaheswara Rao, 1973 ard 1974 ard Chemubhotla et al 1978) ard also species of Gracilaria cultured in the pon::is at Taiwan (Chen, 1976). Trom the occurrence, 9Jrvival arel growth of ~ edulis in the culture pon::i at Mardapam there appears to be a possibility for culturing this alga in culture pords in )rdia. literalure _ Bardach, J'[~ H.H. Ryther & W.O. Me Lamey 1172 Aquaculture, the farming ard husbSf"dary of fresh water am marine organsms John Wiley ard Sons Inc U.s.A. pp. 790-840 Bensam, P. 1985 Some engineering problems in the const ruction ard maintenance of marine culture pards at Mardapam Irdian J. Filtl. 32(4) : 417-430 Olen, T P. 1976 Culture of Gracllaria ~ 'Aquaculture practices in Taiwan' Page Bros (Norwich) Ltd. pp. 115-119 Chel'lf"l.Jbhotla, V.s.K. 4: N. Kaliaperumal 1987 Marine algal flora from selected centres along the Ma::Iras coast Mar. fish. Infor. Ser .... T 6: [ Sere No.n, p. 19 108 Chennuuhotla, V.S .K., N. Kaliaperumal &: S. Kal imulhu 1978 in the inshore waters of Gulf of Mannar (Mardapam) 228- 229 Culture of Gracilari a eduli s Irdian 1. Fish. 25( 1&2) : Chennubhotla, V.S.K., N. Kaliaperumal, S. Kalimuthu, J.R. Ramalingam, M. Selvaraj ard M. Naimuddin 1987 Seaweed culture CMF RI Bull. 4 1 : 60-74 Kaliaperumal , N., V.s.K. Chennubhotla &: S. Kalimuthu Irdia CMFRI Bull . 41 : 5 1-54 1987 Seaweed resources of Umamaheswara Rae, M. 1973 Growth am reproduction in some species of Graci laria ard Graci lariopsis in the Palk Bay Irdian 1. Fish. 20( 1) : 182-192 Umamaheswara Rao, M. 1974 shore areas arourd Mard apam On the cultivation of Gracilaria edulis in the near Curro Sci . 43(20) : 660- 661 

Occurrence and growth of the commercially important red algae in fish culture pond at Mandapam

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Occurrence and growth of the commercially important red algae in fish culture pond at Mandapam

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