On the growth of grass carp, Ctenopharyngodon idella Val. in composite fish culture at Kalyani, West Bengal (India)

Aquaculture. 5( 1975): 283-290 o Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam -Printed

in The Netherlands

ON THE GROWTH OF GRASS C&RP, CTENOPHAR YNGODON IDELLA VAL. IN C!OMPOSITE FISH CULTURE AT KALYANI, WEST RENGAL (INDIA)

V.R.P. SINH:A and M. VIJAYA GUPTA Central Inland Fisheries Research

Institute Barrackpore,

West Bengal (India)

(Received May 2nd, 1974; revised October 14th, 1974)

ABSTRACT Sinha, V.R.P. and Vijaya Gupta, M., 1975. On the growth of grass carp, Ctenopharyngodon idella Val in composite fish culture at Kalyani, West Bengal (India). Aquaculture, 5: 283-290. The Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, under its “All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Composite Culture of Indian and Exotic fishes” has been conducting experiments since 1971 in different parts of India to develop formulae of species combination of fishes whereby fishes feeding in different zones of pond water are selected and cultured together to increase production in pond culture operations. These experilments have indicated that grass carp not only controls aquatic weeds but also at the same time grows very fast and thus it is one of the best culturable fish if its feeds are available.

INTRODUCTION

Carp culture can be broadly divided into three systems: the European system, based on the common carp (which is an omnivore), the Chinese system, based on Chinese carps and the Indian system, based on Indian carps. Both in China and India, polyculture or mixed fish culture has been practised since time immemorial with the indigenous carps. The species usually cultivated in polyculture in India are the catla, C&la c&la (Ham.), rohu, Labeo rohita (Ham.) and mrigal, Cirrhinus mrigala (Ham.). As there were no phytophagous carps in India, grass carp, Ctenopharyngodon idella Val., which feeds on macrophytes and silver carp, Hypoph’thalmichthys molitrix (C. & V.), which feeds on phytoplankton, were imported by the Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, India, in 1959 from Thailand, from where common carp, Cyprinus carpio Linn., had also been imported in 1957. Culture of these fishes along with Indian major carps has been tried for maximisation of fish production from ponds (Lakshmanan et al., 1971; Sinha et al., 1973; Sinha and Gupta, 1974; Sinha and Sharma, 1974). This compatible combination of Indian major carps with exotic carps has been termed as

284

composite fish culture, which is quite distinct from Indian polyculture, where only Indian major carps, C. catla, L. rohita and C. mrigala are reared together (Sinha and Sharma, 1974). The Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, India, under its All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Composite Culture of Indian and Exotic Fishes, has been conducting experiments since 1971, in different parts of India, to develop formulae of species combination of fishes, whereby fishes feeding in different zones of pond water are selected and cultured together to increase the production in pond culture operations. The present investigation has been carried out in one of the centres of this Project. MATERIAL

AND METHODS

The experiments were conducted in two ponds of 0.15 and 0.13 ha in area with water 2-3 feet deep during 1972-1973. The water level in the ponds was very low partly because of the severe drought and partly because of seepage from the ponds to the adjacent lake, which is at a lower level. The ponds were prepared by poisoning with Mahua (L3assiuZatifolia) oil cake (250 ppm). 15 days before the poisoning of the ponds, lime (200 kg/ha) was applied. Organic and inorganic fertilizers were applied regularly at fortnightly intervals, each alternating with the other. Organic manure - cow dung - was applied at the rate of 5 000 kg/ha/year and inorganic fertilizers ammonium sulphate, single superphosphate and muriate of potash - at rates of 450,250 and 40 kg/ha/year, respectively, in monthly instalments. Urea (8 kg/ha) was applied along with other inorganic fertilizers during some months in the first year’s experiments. At times, fertilization of ponds was deferred due to the appearance of algal blooms. The ponds were stocked during April/May, 1972, with Indian major carps C. catla, L. rohita and C. mrigala and exotic carps C. idella, H. molitrix and C. carpio, in the ratios given in Table I. Further in July, 1972, 50 fingerlings of common carp and 25 fingerlings of rohu were stocked in pond 1, whereas pond 2 was stocked with 50 more fingerlings of common carp (Table I). Fresh lots of 50 grass carp and 130 silver carp fingerlings were stocked in pond 2 in December, 1972, to replenish the 22 grass carps and 154 silver carps harvested during September and November, 1972, respectively. Thus the ratio and stocking density altered to some extent from that adopted at the initiation of the experiments. There were no weeds in the experimental ponds. Grass carp were fed with Hydrilla, however, collected from the adjacent lake and kept on platforms made of bamboo poles and coir rope (Fig. 1) in the centre of the pond. Table II gives the quantity of weeds consumed. Other fishes were fed daily with a mixture of ground nut/mustard oil cake and rice bran in the ratio of 1 : 1 by weight in quantities of l-1.5% of their body weight.

0.15

0.13

1

2

0.4

Hydrilla

Hydrilla

1

2

0.6

1st month

Weed

1.1

0.9

2nd month

12 months

6 months

2.9

3.2

3rd month

4.3

4.5

4th month

by grass carp during different

lOC:30R: 12.5 M : 10 Gc : 25 SC : 12.5 Cc

17.6 C : 21.4 R : 11.5 M : 9.1 Gc : 22.9 SC : 11.5 cc

of weeds (in tons) consumed

5 000

5 413

5.3

5.5

5th month

months

101

90

50

79 45

82

75

3.4

3.2

6th month

45

31

21

20

1.4

_

7th month

15.4

40

59

2.4

_

8th month

20

1

1 20

0.6

_

9th month

1152

334

1.2

_

10th month

497

387 137 (4 mj

3.8

_

11th month

381 (4m)

906

571

3.3

_

12th month

2032 (5 mj 1593 (4m) 5040 (12 mj

2530

631 (7 m) 494 (4 mj 1820 (12 m)

492

and harvesting. C, C. cntlo; R, L. rohita; M, C. mrigala, Cc, C. id&; SC, H. molitrix; Cc, C. carpio; m, period of rearing (months) ___~ Stocking Species ratio Period of Average initiai weight (gj Final weight (g) density rearing (no. of C R M Gc SC cc c R M Gc SC fish/ha)

Pond no.

Quantity

TABLE II

Siza of pond (ha)

nnnrl 1 Y..” no.

Details of stocking

TABLE I

1064 (10 mj

1555

606 249 (4 m)

cc

286

Fig. 1. Feeding platforms for grass carp.

OBSERVATIONS

AND RESULTS

Physico-chemical conditions of pond water The temperature of the pond water during the period of experiments was in the range of 2&O-35.5”C in pond 1 and 19.5-35.5”C in pond 2. Dissolved oxygen was in the range of 4.0-20.4 ppm in pond 1 and 2.4-16.4 ppm in pond 2. Growth The average weight attained by different species at the end of rearing period is given in Table I. Of all the species, grass carp had shown a phenomenal growth hitherto not obtained anywhere in the world under such heavy stocking density. In the present experiments, the grass carp reached an average weight of 2 530 g in 6 months rearing in pond 1. In pond 2 they reached an average weight of 2 032 g in 5 months when 22 of them were harvested. A fresh lot of 50 fingerlings of average weight 82 g were stocked in the same pond and they grew to 1 593 g in 4 months, whereas those fishes which belonged to the first lot and completed one full year of rearing in this pond reached an average weight of 5 040 g (Table I). Fig. 2 shows the growth of grass carp during different months. These two ponds gave a record gross production of 3 232 kg/ha/6 months and 6 521 kg/ha/year,

287

MONTHS

Fig. 2. Growth of grass carp at Kalyani.

respectively.. The percentage contribution to production by different species (Table III) indicated that grass carp contributed 28-31.9% of the total production in the first year’s experiments, even though it formed only about 10% of the total stocking density. Percentage survival of different species is given in Table III. Grass carp has also shown excellent growth at other centres of the Project; for example, at GujartaI centre (Uttar Pradesh) grass carp has attained an average weight of 1 666 g in one pond and 1 954 g in the other pond in 6 months rearing. The ponds were stocked at the rate of 5 000 fingerlings/ha in the ratio of 15 C. catla : 30 L. rohita : 12.5 C. mrigala : 10 C. idella : 20 H. molitrix : 12.5 C. carpjo.- A production of 2 692-3 210 kg/ha/6 months was obtained, of which grass carp contributed 29.8-30.3% even though this fish constituted only 10% of the stocking density (Sukumaran et al., 1972). At Karnal centre (Haryana), grass carp has attained an average weight of 2 003 g in the first pond and 2 130 g in pond 2 in 1 year. The ponds were stocked in the ratio of 25 C. catla : 30 L. rohita : 12.5 C. mrigala : 10 C. idella : 10 H. molitrix : 12.5 C. carpio at a stocking density of 5 000 fingerlings/ha. Productions of 3 057-4 128 kg/ha/year were obtained from those ponds. Even though the grass carp formed only 10% of the stocking density, it has contributed 26.1-2’7.9% to the total production (Krishnamurthy et al., 1972).

288

TABLE III Percentage contribution of different species to gross production. different species is given in parenthesis Species

% Contribution Pond 1

Pond 2

c. catla

9.70 (95.2)

7.60 (86.15)

L. rohita

17.80 (94.2)

11.37 (99.49)

C. mrigala

10.10 (89.4)

8.95 (93.00)

C. idella

31.94 (80.0)

28.03 (77.31)

H. molitrix

19.26 (98.9)

19.83 (96.90)

C. carpio

11.20 (75.5)

Miscellaneous

Percentage survival of

-

20.95 (98.77) 3.27

DISCUSSION

Table IV shows the growth of grass carp in various countries under different stocking densities. In China, grass carp attained an average weight of 1.8-2.3 kg in 2 years and 4.0 kg in 3 years at a stocking density of 2 000 fingerlings/ha (Gidumal, 1958; Lin, 1949). In Hongkong, at a stocking density of 500-l 250 fingerlings/ha, grass carp attained a weight of 1.23 kg in 2 years (Lin, 1949). In Malaysia, a growth of 1.8 kg in 1 year was obtained at a very low stocking density of 300 fingerlings/ha (Ilan and Sarig, 1952). In Israel, in 8 months rearing, at a stocking density of 1 013/ha, the growth was observed to be 0.9-1.39 kg (Anonymous, 1967). It is reported that grass carp grows to 3.0 kg in 1 year in Thailand at a stocking density of 857/ha (Ran and Sarig, 1952). Very poor growth in the range 2-42 g in 1 year was observed in Turkmenia, Rumania and Hungary (Woynarovich, 1968). A considerable number of observations have been made in different parts of the world on the control of various aquatic weeds by grass carp; for example, the control of submerged weeds by grass carp has been reported by Kuronuma and Nakamura (1958) in Japan, by Hickhng (1962) and Prowse (1971) in Malaysia, by Swingle (1957) in Thailand, by Ahev (1963) in Russia and by Avault (1965 a and b) in the U.S.A. In India, Ahkunhi and Sukumaran (1964) made a preliminary observation and suggested that ponds choked with Hydrilla could be cleared by 300-375 grass carp, weighing 78.8-173 kg/ha

289

TABLE IV Growth of grass carp in various countries Country

Age (months)

China

24 36 24 12 9-13 8 12 36 12 24 36 12 24 36 12 24 36 12

Hong Kong Malaysia Israel Thailand Singapore Turkmenia

Rumania

Hungary

India (under composite fish culture)

12 KaIyani (present experiments under composite fish culture)

6 12

Density of stocking (no. of fish/ha)

2 000 500-l 300 soo1 013 857 200 -

250 700

4 450-6 250 (Grass carp 470-750) 3 700-5 000 (Grass carp 822-l 428) 5 473 (Grass carp 498) 5 000 (Grass carp 500)

Average weight (kg)

Average daily growth(g)

1.8 -2.3 4.0 1.23 1.8 3.3 -4.2 0.9 -1.39 3.0 15.0 0.02 -0.42 0.36 -0.85 1.94 -3.10 0.015-0.025 0.20 -0.85 0.80 -1.80 0.05 -0.15 0.55 -1.20 1.50 -4.00 0.50 -1.308

2.43.1 3.6 1.7 5.0 10.2-12.0 3.85.8 8.0 13.7 -

0.64

-1.25

4.25-10.9 5.3 -10.4

2.53

14.7

5.04

13.8

’

in 1 month’s time. Kilgen and Smitherman (1971) observed in the U.S.A. that grass carp alone stocked at 40(or more) per acre effectively eliminated 1. 400 kg/acre of Chara spp., Potamogeton diversifolius and Eurasian milfoil (Myriophyllum spicutum) in about 99 days. It is interesting to note that 246 000 grass carps have controlled to a considerable extent the infestation of a stretch of the Karakum canal about 65 miles long in Russia within 2 years (Aliev, 1963). In the present study (see Table II), 75 grass carp with an average initial weight of 31 g at the time of stocking have consumed 17.7 tons of Hydrih in 6 months rearing in the first pond, which indicates the great potentiality of grass carp for aquatic weed eradication. It is also obvious from the present experiments (Tables I and II) that this species not only contro1.s aquatic weeds, but also at the same time grows very fast and thus it is one of the best culturable fish if its feeds are available.

290

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors are grateful to Dr V.G. Jhingran, Director of the Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, for his keen interest in this research.

REFERENCES Aliev, D.S., 1963. Experience in the use of white amur in the struggle against overgrowth of water bodies. Re. Publ. Problems of fisheries exploitation of plant eating fishes in the water bodies of the USSR. Ashkhabad:l-6, mimeographed Alikunhi, K.H. and Sukumaran, K.K., 1964. Preliminary observations on Chinese carps in India. Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., 60 B (3):171--l&% Anonymous, 1967. Annual Report. Trop. Fish Cult. Res. Inst., Malacca:32-38 Avault Jr, J.W., 1965 a. Biological weed control with herbivorous fish. Proc. 18th Annual Meet. South. Weed Conf., January 19th-21st, Dallas, Texas Avault Jr, J.W., 1965 b. Preliminary studies with grass carp for aquatic weed control. Prog. Fish Cult., 27(4):207-209 Gidumal, J.L., 1958. A study of the biology of grass carp. Hongkong Univ. Fish. J., 2: 29-36 Hickling, C.F., 1962. Fish Culture. Faber and Faber, London, 295 pp. Ban, C. and Sarig, S., 1952. Fish breeding in ponds in the Far East. Bamidgeh, 4 (5-6): 84-111 Kilgen, R.H. and Smitherman, R.O., 1971. Food habits of the white amur stocked in ponds alone and in combination with other species. Prog. Fiih Cult., 33( 3): 123-127 Krishnamurthy, K.N., Rao, J.B., Kumar, D. and Tyagi, B.C., 1972. Progress report of Kamal sub-centre, Haryana, for the period of October, 1971 to October, 1972. Second Workshop on All India Coordinated Research Project on Composite Culture of Indian and exotic fishes, unpublished Kuronuma, K. and Nakamura, K., 1958. Weed control in farm pond experiment by stocking grass carp. Indo-Pacif. Fish Coun. 7 (2):35-42 Lakshmanan, M.A.V., Sukumaran, K.K., Murthy, D.S., Chakraborty, D.P. and Philipose, M.T., 1971. Preliminary observations on intensive fish farming in freshwater ponds by the composite culture of Indian and exotic carps. J. Inland Fish. Sot. India, 3:1-21 Lin, S.Y., 1949. Fish Culture in New Territories of Hongkong. I.P.F.C. Ist meeting, Singapore Prowse, G.A., 1971. Experimental criteria for studying grass carp feeding in relation to weed control. Prog. Fish Cult., 33( 3): 128-131 Sinha, V.R.P., Gupta, M.V+ Banerjee, M.K. and Kumar, D., 1973. Composite Fish Culture in Kalyani. J. Inland Fish. Sot. India, 5:201-207 Sinha, V.R.P. and Vijaya Gupta, M., 1974. Composite culture of Indian and exotic carps at Kalyani. Indian Farming, 24(4): 29-31 Sinha, V.R.P. and Sharma, B.K., 1974. Composite fish culture in large sheets of water. Indian Farming, in press Sukumaran, K.K., Khan, H.A., Verghese, P.U. and Mathew, P.M., 1972. Progress report of Jaunpur Sub-centre, U.P., for the period of October, 1971 to October 1972. Second Workshop on All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Composite Culture of Indian and exotic fishes, unpublished Swingle, H.S., 1957. Control of pond weeds by the use of herbivorous fishes. Proc. 10th Annu. Meet. South. Weed Conf., January 23rd-25th:ll-17 Woynarovich, E., 1968. New systems and new fishes for culture in Europe. FAO Fish. Rep., 44(5): 162-181