Growth performance of exotic catfish Pangas, Pangasius hypophthalmus (Sauvage, 1878) at Fish Hatchery ChilyaThatta, Sindh, Pakistan

Abstract

The present study was conducted to observe the growth performance of exotic catfish Pangas (Pangasius hypophthalmus) in cemented cisterns (50 x 25 x 3 ft) at fish hatchery Chilya Thatta, Sindh for 120 days from May to August. Pangas fry (0.76g in weight and 0.78 cm in length) respectively, procured live from Thailand and stocked in cemented cisterns. After acclimatization, the fry fed with formulated diet containing 30% gross protein level thrice a day at the rate of 5 % body weight. The diet was consists of fishmeal, mustered oil cake, rice bran, wheat bran, rice protein and wheat flour. The water quality parameters were recorded throughout the study period and was ranged between temperature 28-32°C, dissolved oxygen 5.2-7.5 mg/lit, pH 7.5- 8.4 and hardness 70-185 ppm which are within the range. The results showed that the growth of Pangas (Pangasius hypophthalmus) found to be higher after 30 days of rearing. Finally, at the end of experiment fish attained 80-140 g in weight and 19.3-23.0 cm in length with Specific growth rate (SGR) 4.1. Feed conversion ratio was estimated 1.15 in 120 days experiment.