Fabrication and in-pond operation of a low-cost,semiautomated portable carp hatchery with a temperature-adjustability feature |
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Authors: | Himanshu Priyadarshi Rekha Das Satya Prakash Atom Arun Singh Arun Bhai Patel Pramod Kumar Pandey |
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Affiliation: | 1. College of Fisheries-CAU (I), Lembucherra, Tripura, India;2. ICAR RC for NEH Region, Tripura Regional Center, Lembucherra, Tripura, India;3. ICAR-CIFE, Mumbai, India |
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Abstract: | The present study describes a simple, portable, and inexpensive in-pond hatchery model assembled from locally available materials for seed production of small and medium-sized carp at high efficiency. This light-weight hatchery requires minimal engineering skills for assembly and operation. Further, the hatchery water supply mechanism has built-in components to filter out sediments and zooplankton from the pond water besides maintaining the water temperature 5°C–7°C lower than the pond surface water by drawing water from a metalimnion layer without additional energy requirements. Spontaneous spawning, automatic transfer of eggs to the incubation tank, and 80% hatching rates at an egg-holding capacity of 2,000 eggs/L was recorded for Barbonymus gonionotus, Labeo bata, and Labeo rohita with minimal human intervention. The production capacity of 0.06 million fry per cycle and estimated benefit-cost ratio of 2.48 demonstrated the high efficiency and economic feasibility of this portable hatchery. |
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Keywords: | Low budget hatchery metalimnion pond based small carp thermal gradient |
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