Polyculture of Mystus gulio (Hamilton 1822) in salinity intrusion prone areas of Bangladesh

Abstract

A 120 days long culture experiment was conducted to evaluate the growth
performance, nutrient utilization and profitability of Mystus gulio in salinity intrusion prone areas
of Bangladesh. Nine uniform earthen ponds (1 decimal=40 m2) with stocking density of 350
fish/decimal were randomly divided into three treatments in triplicate groups with different
species composition explicitly T1 (mono culture, 350 M. gulio), T2 (polyculture, 250 M. gulio
with 60 Oreochromis niloticus and 40 Rhinomugil corsula), and T3 (polyculture of 250 M. gulio,
with 40 O. niloticus and 60 R. corsula). Fishes were fed up to 20% of body weight at the start
and 6% at the end. At the end, significantly (p<0.05) better growth performance of M. gulio
were recorded in T1 followed by T3 and T2. Significantly (p<0.05) better nutrient utilizations in
terms of apparent food conversion ratio (AFCR) and apparent protein efficiency ratio (APER)
were recorded in T2 followed by T3 and T1. Survival (%) of fishes were significantly higher in T3
(82.24) over T1 (77.90) however, T2 (80.56) did not have any significant (p>0.05) difference
with T1 and T3. Significantly (p<0.05) higher production (kg ha-1) were observed in T2
(3,866.37±69.66) followed by the T3 (3,489.968±62.22) and T1 (1,682.50±21.93).
Significantly higher net profit (BDT ha-1) were observed in T3 (158814.88) over T1 (142599.76)
and T2 (129071.86). Based on the present findings, poly culture of M. gulio with O. niloticus and
R. corsula may be suggested to the fish farmer as a potential climate change adaptation option to
utilize the vast salinity intrusion prone areas of coastal Bangladesh.