Producing young, single and meaty oyster Crassostrea iredalei (Faustino, 1932) in grow‐out culture using pouches suspended from rafts

Abstract

Growth and survival of the slipper oyster <i>Crassostrea iredalei</i> using traditional (tires and oyster shells) and new methods (pouches and trays) suspended from floating rafts were compared. After six months of grow-out culture, mean shell length (mm SL) and body weight (g BW) of oysters were significantly highest in those reared in pouches (89.32 ± 0.41 mm SL, 87.70 ± 0.70 g BW), followed by those in trays (83.16 ± 0.31 mm SL, 87.06 ± 0.72 g BW), then those harvested from oyster shells (76.42 ± 0.88 mm SL, 67.35 ± 1.03 g BW), and lastly from tires (72.30 ± 1.21 mm SL, 55.07 ± 1.49 g BW). Growth rates both for length and weight were almost comparable between oysters reared in pouches (6.05 ± 1.28 mm mo⁻¹, 10.98 ± 2.05 g mo⁻¹) and trays (5.01 ± 1.46 mm mo⁻¹, 10.77 ± 2.58 g mo⁻¹). Although 60.7% of the oysters harvested from pouches (<i>n</i> = 1071) were classified as large (85–100 mm SL) and jumbo (100–120 mm SL) and only 39.5% of those from trays (<i>n</i> = 1048), their meat yield did not significantly differ (pouches = 22.60 ± 0.86%; trays = 24.76 ± 0.93%). Survival in pouches (95.2 ± 0.77%) and trays (93.15 ± 2.10%) was almost parallel at harvest. Growing oysters using the new methods produced single, larger, meatier oysters of almost the same size at a shorter culture duration.