| Abstrakt: |
Mass seed production of giant freshwater prawn; Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man, 1879) is a common practice for the last seven years in Contai-III of Purba Medinipur district; West Bengal, India, which imparts immense value in prawn farming. The present study was selected to find out the viability of new techniques. Primary field data from the prawn farmers was collected and mass seed production activity was studied in selected 10 ponds. Important physico-chemical parameters of water in ponds (P1- P10) were analyzed fortnightly in order to find out their co-relation with the production of post larvae. Ranges of water quality parameters throughout the study period (120 days) were studied for freshwater prawn larvae. Mean temperature (29.76±0.51)°C, D.O (4.01±0.11) mg/l, pH (8.08±0.12), salinity (11.96±0.42) ppt, alkalinity (138±2.18) mg/l, NH4-N (0.062±0.019) mg/l, NO2-N (0.26±0.098) mg-1, NO3-N (0.43±0.14) mg/l in ten experimental ponds were recorded. Mass larval culture experiments were carried out from naturally collected berried females or cultured berried female from other areas. Survival rate at post larval stages was 7.11-44.44%, which significantly varied from each other (P<0.05). The larval cycle completed within 20-25 days. Among 10 experimental ponds, the seed (Post Larvae) production varied from 15,00,000 (P2) to 2, 40,000(P9) per 0.1 ha. The net income varied from 1.48 - 10.30 lakh from 0.1 ha pond. The low input seed production process followed is highly suitable for small-scale farmers and can be an alternative to collection of wild post larvae from nature meet the demand of seed for culture as well as reduce resultant collateral damage to biodiversity while collecting seed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
