PRELIMINARY STUDY ON THE NURSERY REARING AND SURVIVAL RATE OF GIFT TILAPIA IN MODULAR FLOATING CAGES AT KOLAVAI LAKE, CHENGALPATTU, TAMIL NADU
Cage culture is gradually adopted by the farmers to utilize the resource of the reservoirs and perennial water bodies all over the World. Nursery rearing of fish seeds is an important phase to enhance survival and prevent mortality. Therefore nursery rearing in cages is a much needed field oriented study to achieve good production and profitability.
This study was conducted in Modular HDPE floating cages of 40 m3 (4mx4mx2.5m) in Kolavai Lake (Perennial Water body) located in Chengalpattu, 60 km away from Chennai. The GIFT Tilapia seeds were stocked in ten nursery cages each with the stocking density of 250 nos/m3. Fish seeds were fed with a commercial floating pellet feed (30% crude protein, 3% fat and 7% fiber) at 8% of their body weight.
The water quality parameters were recorded during the nursery rearing period (Table 1). The GIFT Tilapia seeds with the initial weight of 0.19± 0.02g was stocked in the cages. In 30 days period of nursery rearing, the final weight obtained was at 10.99 ± 0.53g. The growth related parameters of GIFT Tilapia seeds was recorded in this study (Table 2). This study revealed that GIFT Tilapia could be reared in cages in perennial lake successfully particularly during the period from February to March when the water quality is good after rainy season.
