Massive stocking of the open water systems with nursery raised fingerlings and large-scale expansion of fish culture are two important strategies currently adopted in Bangladesh for increasing fish production. As a matter of policy, large size fingerling (10 cm) will be used for both open water stocking as well as pond aquaculture. The Word Bank financed Fisheries Project III alone will require 300 million large size fingerlings annually. Availability of suitable areas for fingerling production being limited, the possibilities of increasing production per unit area from the existing nursery facilities should also be explored, if the future need of the fingerlings are to be met. Worthwhile to mention that there is high demand for large size fingerling in Bangladesh, but the present production capacity can not meet that demand at all.
A survey on the present methodology of fry/fingerling production conducted by this FAO/UNDP Project BGD/87/045 in 1990 revealed that the production technology currently in use is characterized by overstocking of nursery ponds, inadequate pond-preparation, improper manuring and fertilization, and supplying the fish with poor quality feed. Also, intermittent thinning of the fry population and unnecessarily prolonging the production cycle are common features in current nursery practice. Low survival, slow growth, low production of biomass, unnecessary wastage of fry resource and fertilizer, and low profit margin are the inevitable results of the currently used nursery management system here.
The objective of the present study/demonstration was therefore to introduce a low cost effective and productive technology utilizing locally available inputs for commercial production of large size (10 cm/10g) fingerlings. And also to improve production of fingerlings per unit area, partially by repeated use of same ponds. This report is based on the findings of two year operation of fingerling production in four government farms.
