Culture of Fresh Water Fish Channa striatus Using Low-cost Feed and its Cost-benefit Analysis (Small Scale)

In India, the culture of murrels is still not common due to the lack of seed supply and knowledge of their feeding and breeding techniques. Given this, the present study is undertaken to culture this species and work out is economics as this is a prized fresh water fish Channa striatus. The seeds of C. striatus were collected from local breeders of the Kumbagonam area, Tamil Nadu, India. Seedlings were introduced into the two culture ponds separately. The stocking density was 400 numbers/tank. While in pond-1, the size of the fingerlings varied between 5-7 cm (ave. 6 cm) in pond-II, the size of the fingerlings varied between 10 and 12 cm (ave. 11 cm). The feed that was given to fish in both tanks consisted of chicken waste and fish waste which was obtained free of cost from the neighboring market and artificial feed (Make: Super enriched protein feed). The feed were given at the rate of 4% of the body weight. The results of monoculture of murrels for a period of six months was maintained. As evident from the table from an average individual weight of 400 to 510 g after a period of six months grew to an average weight of 350.3 g thus recording an average increase in weight of 60 g. The harvest details show that a total of 294.2 kg could be harvested after six months. The fishes were sold in two lots - the bigger sized fishes weighting 190.6 kg and the smaller sized fish weighting at total of 103.6 kg while the bigger fishes were sold at a rate of Rs.250 per kg, the smaller fishes were sold at a rate of Rs.200 per kg. The net income from bigger fishes was Rs.47650 and the net income from smaller fishes was Rs.20720. Thus, the total yield worked out Rs.68370. The profit during this term worked out to Rs. 52270. The results of the present study clearly show that Channa striatus culture is highly profitable for the farmers.