Aquaculture Research, 2008, 39, 764^776 doi:10.1111/j.1365-2109.2008.01928.x
Induced breeding and larval rearing of Surubı´, Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum (Linnaeus, 1766), from the Bolivian Amazon
Je¤sus Nun ez1,2,Re¤mi Dugue¤1,3, Navil Corcuy Arana3, Fabrice Duponchelle1,2, Jean Franc ois Renno1,4,Thomas Raynaud1,3,5, Nicolas Hubert1 & Marc Legendre1 1IRD UR175, GAMET, BP Montpellier cedex 5, France 2UNFV-FOPCA, Calle Roma, Mira£ores, Lima, Peru¤ 3UAGRM-CICPE, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia 4IIAP,Avenida Aberlardo Quin ones, Iquitos, Peru¤ 5UMII, Creufop, Station Marine Se' te, France
Correspondence: Dr J Nun ez, IRD UR 175, GAMET, BP 5095, 34196 Montpellier, cedex 5, France. E-mail : [email protected], nunez@ ird.fr
Abstract 2004, 2005) despite reports of over-exploitation of some of the most important species (Reinert & Win- Brooders of Surub|¤(Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum) were ter 2002; Petrere, Barthem, Co¤rdoba & Go¤mez 2004). caught in the Ichillo River (Bolivian Amazon) and In this context, the development of aquaculture is a adapted to captivity conditions for 1 year in the facil- viable alternative to capture ¢sheries for providing a ities of the experimental aquaculture station of sustainable source of proteins for local ¢shermen ‘El Prado’ (Santa Cruz de la Sierra) under natural tem- communities and populations of the developing cities perature and photoperiod conditions. Induced repro- s in theAmazon region. Currently,the freshwater mar- duction was obtained by means of Ovaprim (Syndel, ketable ¢sh in this area come from inland capture Canada) injections and arti¢cial fertilization. Sperm (667000 MT for 2005) and from aquaculture and ova were obtained by gentle stripping of male (246000 MT) (FAO 2005; Ru⁄no 2005). In some in- and female brooders. Fertilized eggs were incubated stances, the necessity for fast-producing systems has in 60 L Zug jars. A mean hatching rate of encouraged the introduction of ‘ready-to-use’ alien 73.7 19.0% was obtained after 24 h at 26.5 1C. For species, essentially the tilapias, carps and African larval rearing, several protocols were tested with dif- cat¢sh(Welcomme1988),butatthecostofenviron- ferent settings of photoperiod, light intensity, food mental issues pertaining to biodiversity.The culture type and period of distribution, and stocking density. of economically important Amazonian species must The best survival rates were obtained with Artemia be considered in order to provide an alternative to nauplii feeding in total darkness. A high level of ag- alien species introductions in the Amazon basin. gressiveness between larvae and precocious appear- The Bolivian Amazon represents a great potential ance of jumpers was observed, but these can be for ¢sh culture, especially in its northern and central controlled with appropriate rearing conditions. parts, where high temperatures and good water qual- ity are available all year round. One of the limiting Keywords: Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum,larval factors of ¢sh culture development is the lack of sus- rearing, photoperiod, induced spawning, Bolivian tained ¢ngerling production for the important com- Amazon mercial species. Within the cat¢sh family Pimelodidae, three species, Pseudoplatystoma fascia- tum, P. t i g r i n u m and P. c o r u s c a n s, share very similar Introduction characteristics and constitute important commercial The ¢shing pressure keeps increasing in the Amazon ¢sh resources in the Amazon and adjacent regions region (Almeida, McGrath & Ru⁄no, 2001; Ru⁄no (Almeida 2006). Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum and
r 2008 The Authors 764 Journal Compilation r 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Aquaculture Research, 2008, 39, 764^776 Induced breeding of Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum J Nun ez et al.
P. t i g r i n u m occur throughout the Amazon basin, and et al. 2003). The amount and quality (or type) of food in the Bolivian Amazon (Loubens & Pan¢li 2000), and its availability have an obvious in£uence on lar- whereas P. coruscans is distributed in the Rio Sao val survival and cannibalism because a lackof satiety Francisco and R|¤o de la Plata Basins (Barthem & or a nutritional de¢ciency exacerbates this natural Goulding 1997; Tavares 1997). Recently, the genus behaviour (Qin & Fast 1996). If the feeding period Pseudoplatystoma has been subdivided into eight spe- and meal frequency can in£uence larvae survival, it cies, three long recognized ones and ¢ve new species: has also been reported in several species that light P. punctifer (Castelnau), P. reticulatum Eigenmann & phase duration can directly in£uence cannibalistic Eigenmann, P. o r i n o c o e n s e n. sp., P. m e t a e n s e n. sp. behaviour (Appelbaum & Kamler 2000). and P. magdaleniatum n. (Buitrago^SuaŁ rez & Burr The present study aimed at providing (1) more reli- 2007). According to the geographic distribution of able bases for the hormonally induced reproduction the described species, the species studied here would of P. fasciatum, (2) a better characterization of the be P. punctifer. Nevertheless, in this paper, we will e¡ect of biotic and abiotic factors in larval intensive continue to use the former name, P. fasciatum,for rearing conditions and (3) the identi¢cation of appro- the sake of consistency with previous studies on the priate food and feeding regimes for maximizing lar- same species in the region. These Pimelodidae are val survival and growth. A methodology was among the most appreciated and expensive cat¢sh developed for induced breeding of P. fasciatum and species in the ¢sh markets of South America. Given three di¡erent food sources for ¢rst feeding of larvae: the increasing demand for these species, several at- Artemia nauplii, decapsulated Artemia cysts and tempts of arti¢cial reproduction have been underta- earthen pond zooplankton were compared. As ken with P. fasciatum (Kossowski & Madrid 1985; P.fasciatum is a nocturnal animal, feeding mostly dur- Rodriguez 1996; Padilla Pe¤rez, AlcaŁ ntara Bocanegra ing the night, we investigated in parallel the in£uence &Ismin