Performance, welfare and production strategies for the cage culture of silver perch ('Bidyanus bidyanus' Mitchell)

Abstract

Fish is an important source of high-quality protein for billions of people. With an increasing world population, aquaculture will be crucial to future world food security. Competition for land, water and energy will affect our ability to produce food, but the majority of world aquaculture production takes place in the world's most populous nations where land and water are at a premium. Most of this production is integrated with other farming systems. In Australia, water is not fully utilised when it is only used to irrigate crops. Growing fish in floating cages is cost-effective means of using irrigation water to produce an additional crop. The Australian freshwater silver perch 'Bidyanus bidyanus' (Mitchell) is an ideal aquaculture species that performs well in cages, but optimal stocking conditions and suitable production strategies are not yet known. Cage culture may overcome the low survival rates and high production costs constraining growth of the pond-based industry in Australia. Evaluating the potential of silver perch cage culture requires on-farm trials, but the performance and welfare of fish in trials would be compromised without sufficient knowledge of optimal stocking conditions for the species. The current study has used an experimental approach to determine optimal culture conditions and production techniques for silver perch in cages.