Over-wintering growth of Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man) with carp polyculture in Bangladesh fed formulated diets

• Published in: Aquaculture research Vol. 37; no. 13; pp. 1334 - 1340
• Main Authors: Hossain, Md. Arshad, Kibria, Abu Syed Md
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Oxford, UK : Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.09.2006; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Catla; Catla catla; formulated diets; Freshwater; Indian major carp; Labeo rohita; M. rosenbergii; Macrobrachium rosenbergii; Oryza sativa; over-wintering; polyculture; Triticum aestivum; Bangladesh
• ISSN: 1355-557X; 1365-2109
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2109.2006.01571.x

An experiment was conducted from December 2003 to April 2004 to observe the over-wintering growth of freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, with catla, Catla catla and rohu, Labeo rohita in polyculture using formulated diets. The study was conducted in eight experimental ponds, each 80 m². Three experimental diets containing 30% protein were prepared using fish meal, meat and bone meal, mustard oilcake, rice bran, wheat bran and molasses (binder), and assigned to treatments T₁, T₂ and T₃ respectively. A commercial diet from Saudi-Bangla Fish Feed was assigned to T₄ (reference diet). Each treatment had two replicate ponds. Juvenile prawns and catla and rohu fingerlings (initial weight 1.60±0.10, 30.0±1.2 and 25.0±1.1 g respectively) were stocked at a ratio of 2:1:1 (prawn:catla:rohu). A total of 160 prawn and fish (20 000 ha⁻¹) were stocked in each pond. Fish were fed twice daily at 3% body weight (b.w.) for the first 3 months and 5% b.w. for the last 2 months. Prawns in T₁ fed diet 1 had significantly higher (P<0.05) weight gain compared with that of T₃. The reference group and T₂ had intermediate values not significantly different from either. Weight gains of catla and rohu were significantly higher in T₁. The feed conversion ratio values of different diets ranged between 1.89 and 2.13. Survival (%) ranged from 90.0% to 95.0% for catla, 87.5% to 92.5% for rohu and 70.0% to 76.3% for M. rosenbergii, and there were no significant differences (P>0.05) among different treatments. Total production ranged between 2196 and 2679 kg ha⁻¹, with T₁ showing significantly higher production and net profit (taka 56 531.9 ha⁻¹). The results of the study demonstrated that it is possible to culture M. rosenbergii with carp in polyculture during the winter utilizing the late-produced PLs. Further study is needed to determine the optimum stocking density of M. rosenbergii in carp polyculture.