Culture of snubnose pompano, Trachinotus blochii (Lacepede, 1801) in indigenous re-circulatory aquaculture system using low cost fishmeal-based diet

An experimental culture of snubnose pompano, Trachinotus blochii was conducted for 210 days in low saline water to understand the growth potential in small indigenous Re-circulatory Aquaculture Systems (iRAS) using low cost fishmeal-based diet developed for pompano. In the present study, snubnose pompano has reached the marketable size (287.32±4.84 g) during the culture period with excellent feed conversion ratio of 1.74±0.01 and average daily growth of 1.32±0.02 g/day. Harvested fish showed viscerosomatic index, hepatosomatic index and intra-peritoneal fat ratio of 4.98±0.21, 0.99±0.09 and 1.45±0.16 %, respectively which enhanced the head-on muscle yield (80.57±3.25 %) and fillet yield (52.22±2.27 %). The survival percentage of T. blochii reared in the iRAS was 88.89±3.51 %. The cost of the diet developed for snubnose pompano is well below the commercially available marine fish feeds. The present study suggested that snubnose pompano can be successfully cultured in low saline sea water iRAS using low cost fishmeal-based diet.