Growth Performance of the “BEST” Strain Under Communal and Separate

Growth Performance of the “BEST” Strain and NIFI Under Communal and Separate Rearing Test

by Rudhy Gustiano, Otong Zenal Arifin and Gleni Hasan Huwoyon.

ABSTRACT
Generaly the common cultured nile tilapia are represented by the black and red phenotypes. In many species, color has a pleiotropic effect on the growth performance as well as their commercial price. The objectives of the study was to elucidate the growth performance of the “BEST” (black nile tilapia) and NIFI (red nile tilapia) strain under communal and separate rearing test. In the study fish with 4-5 cm sized in length were used. In communal test (experiment 1), fish were reared in 1 m3 fine net placed in concrete tank with density 80 fish/net (40 fish for each strain) with four replications. In separate rearing test (experiment 2), fish were reared with density 65 fish/net with four replications for each strain. During the experiment, fish were fed with commercial pellet 5% body weight a day. Observation on the growth was conducted every 10 days by weighting the 30% of population for each strain. The results showed that in experiment 1, the BEST strain has better growth performance than NIFI one (P<0,01) for absolute growth (BEST: 8,0 ± 0,88; NIFI: 3,6 ± 0,72) and spesifik growth rate (BEST: 0,2 ± 0,02; NIFI: 0,1 ± 0,02). The significant different (P<0,01) was started on the third sampling. In the experiment 2, the BEST strain has better absolute and spesific growth than NIFI (P<0,01) with absolute growth (BEST: 5,4 ± 0,96; NIFI: 2,8 ± 0,36), and specific growth rate (BEST: 0,18 ± 0,035; NIFI: 0,09 ± 0,013). Significant different was exist on the second sampling.

Key words: growth, nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, strain, color