Comparison of growth performance of major and chinese carps fed on floating and sinking pelleted supplementary feeds in ponds

An experiment was conducted to observe the effects of floating and sinking pelleted supplementary feeds on the growth performance of major carps viz. labeo rohita,cirrhinus mrigala. catla catla and chinese carps viz. hypophthalmichthys molitrix and ctenopharyngodon idella in earthen ponds for a period of 230 days. they were fed on floating (t1) and sinking feeds (t2) having 20% cp at a rate of 3% body weight once daily. total fish weight gain was significantly higher in t1 fed on floating than on sinking pelleted feed in t2. the performance of individual fish in two treatments was varying. h. molitrix,c. catla and l. rohita performed better on floating (t1),while c. idella performed best followed by h. molitrix on sinking feed (t2). the growth performance of c. mrigala was more or less similar in both the treatments. it was observed that floating feed had much lower value of food conversion ratio (fcr) than sinking feed. it was found that floating feed is better than the sinking feed for increasing per hectare pond production. the physical and hydrological characteristics of ponds were more or less similar during the experimental period. copyright 2010 zoological society of pakistan.