Evaluation of growth performance of three strains Tilapia in brackish water pond in West Java, Indonesia

Abstract

There is a lot of abandoned brackish water shrimp ponds in Indonesia, which can be utilize for tilapia fish farming in the context of increasing national tilapia production. This experiment aimed to evaluate the growth performance of three strains of Nile tilapia that is red tilapia (Oreochromis sp), Srikandi hybrid tilapia (O. aureus x niloticus) and blue tilapia (O. aureus) in brackish water pond. Fish fingerlings were produced by natural spawning of each strains in the freshwater earthen pond. The broodstock were mated at male to female ratio of 10:30. After 14 days of mating, larvae were harvested and reared in happa measuring 2x2 m² with a stocking density of 250 fish m^-2 for 90 days to reach the fingerling size. Rearing of fingerling was carried out in the 3x5 m² net installed in the coastal pond with water salinity of 20-30gL^-1 for 120 days. The fingerlings were stocked at density of 10 fish m^-2. Feeding was applied at a rate of 5-10% of biomass twice daily. The observed parameters included of growth rate, survival rate and feed conversion ratio. The results showed that Srikandi strains tilapia revealed the highest daily growth of 2.02 g day^-1, 3.34% higher than that of red tilapia and 21.45% higher than blue tilapia. The feed conversion ratio (FCR) of Srikandi tilapia was 1.69, lower than those of red tilapia and blue tilapia i.e. 1.72 and 1.92. Based on the growth rate, feed conversion ratio, and survival rate, Srikandi strain tilapia had the best performance among others and was recommended as the most suitable candidate for fish culture in the high salinity ponds in Indonesia