Türker Bodur1*, Can Okan Günaydın2 , Sinan Toplu3
1 Akdeniz University, Fisheries Faculty, Department of Aquaculture, Antalya, Turkey,
2 ASC Su Ürünleri AŞ. Güllük Muğla, Turkey,
3 Manastır Cd. 1345 Ada. No 25. Güllük, Muğla, Turkey
(*) Email: turkerb@akdeniz.edu.tr
Introduction
Meagre, Argyrosomus regius Asso 1801, is a new aquaculture species and its fast growing makes it interesting in aquaculture sector in Europe. Aquaculture of meagre began in France with an annual production of 30 t in 1997 and reached 2200 t in Egypt, 1348 t in Spain, 418 t in France in 2009 (FAO, 2011). The techniques of ongrowing are similar to culture techniques of both European seabass and gilthead seabream (Duncan et all 2013). Meagre is a promising aquaculture species for its high growth rate (around 1 kg per year) and good feed conversion ratio (Duncan et al., 2013). Turkey is one of the biggest meagre producers in Europe by 5 million fry production in 2012. In Turkey, ongrowing of meagre is happening in floating cages. This research is aimed to understand the condition of summer season production of meagre in earthen pond.
Material Method
The research carried out in an earthen pond farm of ASC Fish Farm Inc. 15400 juveniles meagre, average weight of 13g, were stocked in two earthen ponds (L:50m, W:20m, D:3m). Juveniles were fed by sea bass food by %2-3.5 of body weight, three times a day during the research. The study took seven months (217 days) from Mid-March to Mid-October. Temperature and feed consumption is recorded daily and fish weight is recorded every 30 days by weighing 30 fish from each pond. Thermal growth coefficients (TGC), specific growth rate (SGR) and food conversion rate (FCR) of fish were calculated.
Results
Maximum TGC was found 1.35 at 24°C in July. At the end of research final TGC was found 0.94. The highest SGR was found 2.24 on 24°C on June and final SGR is found 1.49. At the end of research FCR was 1.48. Lower SGR and TGC were found as 0.38 and 0.41 respectively on October, when the temperature was 19.9°C and average weight of fish was 329.0 g.
Conclusion
The fish, farmed in earthen pond, resemble wild fish by taste and colour (Çeriğ, 2002). Meagre, farmed in earthen pond looks like a wild meagre. Especially the colour of fish was bright not dark and pink, purple points were clearly and more tasty than farmed meagre in cage. FCR was found similar or better than previous studies which carried out in cages or tanks (Bajandas et al, 2009 El-Shebly et al, 2007, Velazco-Vargas et al 2013). SGR in earthen pond is lower than rearing in the tank (Bajandas et al, 2009). It might be the reason of seasonal temperature changing on earthen ponds. There are limited researches on earthen pond culture of meagre as field work but our preliminary results support the rearing meagre during the summer season in earthen pond in Turkey.
References
Bajandas A.C., Rodríguez-Rúa A. and Cárdenas S., 2009. Effects of different feeding rates on growth of juvenile meagre, Argyrosomus regius (Asso, 1801). Aquaculture Europe 14-17 August 2009 Norway, 127-128
Çeriğ E., 2002. Improved grow-out of European Seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax., 1781). J. Tur. Fish. And Aqu Sci. 2: 71-75
Duncan N.J., Estévez A., Fernández-Palacios H., Gairin I., Hernández-Cruz C.M., Roo J., Schuchardt D., Vallés, R. 2013. Aquaculture production of meagre (Argyrosomus regius): hatchery techniques, ongrowing and market. In: Allan, G., Burnell, G. (Eds.), Advances in aquaculture hatchery technology. Woodhead Publishing Limited, Cambridge, UK.
El-Shebly A.A., El-Kady M.A.H., Hussin A.B. and Hossain, Y., 2007. Preliminary observations on the pond culture of meagre, Argyrosomus regius (Asso, 1801) (Scieanidae) in Egypt. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 2:345-352.
FAO, 2011. FAO Fisheries Department, Fishery Information, Data and Statistics Unit. FISHSTAT Plus: Version 2.3. 2000. Data sets: Aquaculture production: quantities and values 1950- 2009
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Asoc. Prof. Erkan Gümüş for his helps on evaluate the results. This study has been supported by the Research Project Fund of Akdeniz University.