In recent years, cage culture has emerged as one of the most viable method
of sea farming. This aquaculture farming system offers the farmer a chance to
utilize existing water resources, which is not used for other purposes. At present,
situations like increase in consumption of fish, decline in wild stock and poor
return from other culture systems paved strong interest for the fish production
through cage culture among the fish farmers. Selection of fish species is playing
major role in cage culture operation. Therefore, while selecting the species the
biological as well as economical criteria should be taken into consideration, which
includes available source of fish seed either from wild or hatcheries, seasonal
abundance of the fish seeds in wild, acceptance to artificial feeds, consumer
acceptance to the fish, economic value of the fish in local and international
market, regional preference, compatibility of the species to culture in various
system, resistance to disease and stress, ability to breed and produce the seed in
confined environments. By considering the above criteria, a variety of
commercially important marine fish species are highly found suitable for cage
farming. The important candidate species from different parts of the world
includes cobia (Rachycentron canadum), seabass (Lates calcarifer), snappers
(Lutjanus sp.), pompanos (Trachinotus sp.) and groupers (Epinephelus sp.), etc.
Commercial level seed production technology for majority of these fishes has
been developed in many of the South East Asian countries. In India, the seed
production of cobia, silver pompano, seabass and orange spotted grouper has been
achieved successfully by different fisheries research institutions
