Manual on milkfish cage culture operations

Abstract

Milkfish (Chanos chanos, or bangus) culture is the largest finfish aquaculture industry in the Philippines and continues to be a top aquaculture commodity primarily because it is easy to culture and can be grown in a wide range of environments. Milkfish thrives in freshwater, brackishwater, marine, and even hypersaline habitats. Milkfish production is increasing rapidly with much of the production moving away from the traditional culture in brackishwater ponds to fish cages in coastal marine waters. To provide a general view of the milkfish culture industry, brief descriptions on breeding, hatchery production, and nursery operation are included in this manual. This manual is meant to serve as a guide for those interested to venture into marine cage farming of milkfish. Milkfish culture has been practiced in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Taiwan for centuries and has been the focus of aquaculture research in a number of institutions for several decades. Innovations in culture practices as a result of information from research data and from farmer’s experiences have been adopted by industry practitioners and these are documented in the recently published book entitled Milkfish Aquaculture in Asia (Liao and Leano, 2010). The recent concern about the rapid growth of aquaculture and its possible environmental impacts, and risks that can threaten the sustainability of this expanding industry has also been the subject of many conferences to develop good management practices in aquaculture. Principles and guidelines on better management practices in marine finfish culture had been drafted and included in this manual.