Polyculture of Puntius Pulchellus With Catla Catla And Labeo Rohita

By : K.P. Hemaprasanth , M.R. Raghunath , B. Gangadhar , S. Saurabh , C.H. Raghavendra , N. Sridhar , P. Jayasankar

Page No: 77-83

Abstract
Puntius pulchellus, a medium carp was evaluated for its potential as a candidate species for species diversification in freshwater aquaculture. Two growth trials were conducted to evaluate its performance with other Indian major carps, Catla catla and Labeo rohita in polyculture conducted in outdoor, stone pitched, un-manured ponds. In the first trial, catla was replaced with pulchellus at 20 and 30% levels and in the second, the replacement was done for rohu. Monoculture of the species being replaced and that of pulchellus was also carried out for comparison. Results of the first trial revealed that the growth of catla and pulchellus was higher in both 20 and 30% replacements compared to that in monoculture. Among the two substitutions, the better growth of both the species was recorded at 30% replacement of catla with pulchellus. In the rohu substitution trial also, there was a clear improvement in the performance of both the species when grown in polyculture than in monoculture. P. pulchellus gained weight in both the treatments, whereas the optimal weight gain was recorded in 20% replacement in rohu. The fact that both the species grew better in polyculture than in monoculture reveals that pulchellus is a good candidate species for polyculture with catla and rohu. Since weight gain of both the species increased with increased substitution of catla with pulchellus, there is scope for conducting further culture trials to evaluate still higher levels of substitution in order to arrive at optimal level.

Authors :
K.P. Hemaprasanth, M.R. Raghunath, B. Gangadhar, S. Saurabh, C.H. Raghavendra and N. Sridhar
Regional Research Centre, ICAR- Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Bangalore, India.

P. Jayasankar
ICAR- Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar, India.