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Fish farming of native species in Colombia: current situation and perspectives
Author(s) -
CruzCasallas Pablo Emilio,
MedinaRobles Víctor Mauricio,
VelascoSantamaría Yohana María
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
aquaculture research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.646
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1365-2109
pISSN - 1355-557X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2109.2011.02855.x
Subject(s) - biology , fish farming , fishery , aquaculture , tilapia , common carp , agriculture , catfish , oreochromis , introduced species , carp , silver carp , cyprinus , ecology , fish <actinopterygii>
In Colombia and the rest of the world, the decrease in capture fisheries production has turned the aquaculture into an alternative source of protein for the populations food security as well as an important productive activity, generating employment and income for the rural communities. The Colombian pisciculture is based on red Tilapia Oreochromis sp. (Linnaeus), Rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum) and cachama blanca Piaractus brachypomus (Cuvier), which currently represent around 96% of the total national production. The remaining 4% comes from other farmed species such as bocachico Prochilodus magdalenae (Steindachner), carp Cyprinus carpio (Linnaeus) and yamú Brycon amazonicus (Spix & Agassiz). From the three main fish species, cachama blanca is the only native species, which has shown excellent performance in pond farming due to its rusticity, omnivorous habits, docility, meat quality, food conversion and disease resistance. The limited offer of Colombian fish farmed species determines its currently low competitiveness and restricted impact on the international markets; thus making necessary to explore the potential of new fish species in order to introduce them to the pisciculture system and to expand the range of fish farming species. A good alternative is the introduction of native catfish, which have great potential for fish farming activity.