Comparative study on nursing of different strains of Tilapia in Bangladesh

Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate and compare the growth performance of four Tilapia strains in hapa nursing with the aim to find out the best strain of tilapia. The experiment had conducted by four treatments with five replicates each during date, month to date, month. BFRI source tipalia collected from BFRI HQ, Mymensingh stocked in Treatment-1; unknown source from Hi-Tech Tilapia Hatchery Dagoanbhuiya, Feni in Treatment-2, Philippines strain from Green Field Tilapia Hatchery, Laxmipur in Treatment-3 and fry from Breeding Cohort, Sonar Bangla Hatchery, Bamna, Barguna in Treatment-4. The individual stocking weight (g) of fry was average 0.01g. The fries were stocked in 20 hapa at same stocking density of 600fish/m 2 . Each of the hapa was 2m × 1m × 1m size and fixed in an earthen ponds. Supplementary feed with 31.29% of protein was given at the rate of 40% of the body weight of fry per day manually, four times a day at the beginning of the experimental period and reduced to 25% of their body weight and continued until end of the research. Statistical analysis showed that fry of Treatment-4 strain was the best strain with significantly (p < 0.05) higher gross yield (2.13 kg/ m ) than the strains of other treatments. The strain of Treatment-4 had the fastest growth rate, whereas the lowest performing strain was that from Treatment-2.The survival was found highest in Treatment-4 (80%) whereas the lowest in Treatment-3. Treatment-4 stain also showed the best feed conversion ratio 1.62 than others. Considering the overall performance it can be concluded that tilapia strain collected from Breeding Cohort source is best among the four strains. However, further research is needed to compare with more strains of tilapia from different water body to find out the best strain of Tilapia. 2 ) and Net yield (2.12 kg/m 2