Coastal Aquaculture and Mariculture (2+1)

Unit 2 - Traits of important cultivable species

2.2. Milkfish

Introduction
The milkfish, Chanos chanos is one of the most ideal fish for coastal aquaculture. This commercially very important fish has many traits essential for culture. They have fast growth rate, in the first year of its life; wide range of tolerance to temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen; feeds on algal mats at the bottom and resistant to most diseases and parasites.

It is cultured on a large scale in Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan for centuries. It is much esteemed fish in the south east Asian countries.

Distinctive characters
Milkfish has a moderately compressed, spindle shaped elongated body covered with small scales. Mouth is small, without teeth, snout is longer than the lower jaw, which has a small tubercle at its tip. The dorsal fin is located at about the middle point of the body; anal fin short and situated far behind the dorsal fin base. Lateral line is present and tail fin is large and forked. The dorsal, anal and caudal fins have dark margins.

Biology

It grows up to 180 cm in length and 20 kg in weight, but the fish caught in the sea normally range from 70-110 mm.
The fry and fingerlings feed on microscopic algae. The fish grows to about 50 cm in length weighing 500 – 800 g in brackish water ponds.
In ponds milkfish feed mainly on filamentous algae at the bottom along with associated microorganisms and detritus. The fish can be fed supplementary feed such as rice bran, oil cakes and other feed stuffs.