Asian-Pacific Aquaculture 2019

June 19 - 21, 2019

Chennai Tamil Nadu - India

EFFECT OF SALINITY LEVELS ON GROWTH, FEED UTILIZATION, CARCASS COMPOSITION AND DIGESTIVE ENZYMES ACTIVITIES OF JUVENILE PEARLSPOT Etroplus suratensis IN RACEWAY BASED CULTURE SYSTEM

Ezhilarasi. V*., Felix. S., Samuel moses .T.L.S., Cherylantony., and Aruna. S.,
*Dr. M.G.R. Fisheries college and Research Institute, Ponneri - 601 204, India
 Tamil Nadu Dr. J. Jayalaithaa Fisheries University, Nagapatinum- 611 001, India
 ezhilarathana@gmail.com
 

The present study was conducted to elucidate the growth ability of the fish pearl spot (Etroplus suratensis) to know the scope of this species for aquaculture under various salinities. Juveniles of Pearlspot of mean standard length, 9.73 ± 0.38 cm and mean weight,  21.10±0.65g, were reared at three salinities viz., 0ppt (T1), 15ppt (T2) and 25ppt with 3 duplicate each, for a period of 60days, in 50t capacity raceway system to evaluate the effect of salinity on growth, survival, digestive enzyme and carcass composition. Growth and survival were recorded after every two weeks. At the end of the rearing period results showed that salinity (p<0.05) influenced juvenile pearlspot growth performance and survival.  Among the treatment groups, fishes reared under 15ppt salinity group showed the highest growth performance in terms of  biomass (42080.00±1049.1), SGR (0.33±0.009), WGP (24.69±0.74), MGR(3.66±0.09), FCE (8.23±0.24) and lowest FCR (0.12±0.003) followed by 0ppt and 25ppt. The carcasses compositions also showed a significant difference attributed by different level of salinity. The digestive enzyme activity of 15ppt salinity group possessed an enhanced amylase (0.006±0.00), Protease (0.599±0.13) and Lipase (0.526±0.17) activity compared to other treatment. The levels of Total hardness, Total alkalinity and Ammonia -N, were within the acceptable limits for the growth of the fishes in the raceway based system. The present study demonstrated that salinity of 15ppt and 0ppt was effective for improving the overall growth performance, carcass yield and digestive enzyme in raceway based system. The study concluded that E. suratensis can adapt well to the new salinity conditions thereby suggesting its potential as candidate for fish farming under different external salinities.