Open AccessA Comparative Study on the Growth, Feed Conversion and Production of Fry of Improved and Non-improved Strains of the Nile Tilapia Oreochromis niloticus
Author(s) -
Mohammad T Ridha
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
asian fisheries science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.275
H-Index - 7
eISSN - 2073-3720
pISSN - 0116-6514
DOI - 10.33997/j.afs.2006.19.4.001
Subject(s) - oreochromis , nile tilapia , tilapia , biology , zoology , feed conversion ratio , fishery , strain (injury) , body weight , production cost , aquaculture , fish <actinopterygii> , fish farming , veterinary medicine , microbiology and biotechnology , anatomy , endocrinology , medicine , mechanical engineering , engineering
Two experiments were conducted consecutively to evaluate and compare the mean weight (MWT), daily growth rate (DGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR), survival and production rate (PR) in the non-improved strain (NS) of the Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (Cichlidae) with those in the Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) strain and the FaST selected tilapia (FaST), from the swim-up fry stage to fish weight of 1.0 g (Experiment 1) and from fish weight of 1.0 to 20 g (Experiment 2). In both experiments, results showed the GIFT and FaST strains to have significantly higher MWT, faster DGR, lower FCR and higher PR than those of the NS. Unlike in Experiment 1, survival rates did not differ significantly among the three strains. In Experiment 1, the improvements in the FaST for the MWT, DGR and PR over those for the NS were 77.9, 72.9 and 33.6%, respectively. In Experiment 2, the improvements for the same parameters were 58.7, 57.8 and 54.5%, respectively. These results indicate the advantage and potential of culturing the FaST or the GIFT strain in Kuwait for improving the production of fresh tilapia, reducing the production cost and increasing the profitability of tilapia farms.