Finfish Breeding and Hatchery Management

Unit 5 - Fish seed rearing techniques

5.2.2. Rearing carp seed in pens/cages

• Carps are generally cultured up to adult size in ponds with little water exchange. The alternatives are cage and pen systems.
• These can be used for rearing larvae, fry and fingerlings.
• Cages and pens in flowing waters can enjoy an abundant supply of oxygen, flushing of metabolic wastes of the stocked fish, and nutrients from the catchment area.
• Grow out of fish in cages is well known in the Indo-Pacific region, but the rearing of fish seed in pens, located in running waters, has not been widespread.
• In India, rearing of major carp seed in pens located in the Bhavanisagar and the Tungabhadra reservoirs was carried out as early as 1978.
• Investigations on rearing of Indian major carp spawn up to fingerlings in the periphery of the Tungabhadra reservoir were carried out.