Journal of Fisheries and Life Sciences

Author(s): M. Anamul Haque, M. A. Baker Siddique, M. Rafiqul Azam, S. Monira Shanta, A. Ahmed Nishat, Rafiul Islam, M. Fazla Rabbi, Sonya Mrong, M. Ashik Ullah and M. Rafiqur Rahman

Abstract: This study focused on the development of nursing protocol of endangered fish species, Pabda Catfish Ompok pabda in nursery ponds to estimate the growth, survival and production. The experiment was conducted in six nursery ponds of 4.0 decimal (0.016 ha) each stocked with 5 days old fry of pabda cultured over a period of 4 weeks from 01 April 2018 to 28 April 2018. The stocking density was 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 million/ha in T1, T2 and T3, respectively. The commercially available Quality pre-nursery and nursery feeds were given three times daily at the rate of 15% for the first one week and were decreased by 1% consistently from there on. Highest growth performance was recorded where the stocking density was lowest. Similar result was observed in survival rate which were 57.57, 51.43 and 45.68% where stocking densities were 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 million fry ha^-1. The final mean length of 3.35±0.39 cm, 3.01±0.31cm and 2.47±0.19 cm and weight of 3.71±0.42 g, 3.28±0.13 g and 2.66±0.36 g were obtained at 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 million fry/ ha stocking densities, respectively. The growth performances and survival of pabda fry were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in T1 than those obtained from T2 and T3, respectively. But the highest gross and net production was recorded in T2 where the stocking density was 2.5 0 million fry/ha. So, the stocking density of 2.5 million fry/ ha showed the best performance in primary nursing which a better production to fish farmers but more research still needed to further optimize stocking density of O. pabda for primary nursing.