Growth of GI Macro II strain in different locations

Abstract

A selective breeding program was conducted to improve freshwater prawns with the use of a synthetic population formed from numerous breeders collected from Tanjung Air (Bekasi), Kalipucang (Ciamis) and Musi (Palembang). The stock from Tanjung Air was collected in February 1995 with an average body weight of 70 g/pc. Individual selection was applied to this stock to increase its edible portion. The stock from Kalipucang was collected in June 1996 with an average weight of 72g. Index selection was used in this stock to improve growth rate and edible portion. After two steps of selection, the synthetic population was constructed from these two stocks and incorporated to the stock from Musi (ABW=75g, collected in May 1997). Family selection was then applied to the synthetic population. Thus, in 2001, a new breed of freshwater prawn has been developed and released to the farmers. This strain was the GI Macro or the Genetically Improved Macrobrachium rosenbergii (Emmawati et al., 2001). This study was conducted to evaluate the capability or performance of GI Macro in different locations/environments. Growth of the GI Macro was evaluated in three different locations : low (<10 m), moderate (150-250 m) and higher (>250 m) than the sea surface level.