Programa de arraçoamento no crescimento de Arapaima gigas de 1,6 a 8 kg de peso corporal

Abstract

Pirarucu (Arapaima gigas) is another native species that has stood out and been pointed out as one of the most promising for aquaculture. The production of the species in the country has registered significant growth, from around 1,000 tons, in 2011 to 11,336 tons in 2014. However, the development of the production chain faces a series of technological obstacles, among which are the more critical, the low dominance over captive breeding and nutrition. The objective of this study was to evaluate the behavior of the body weight, weight gain, feed intake, crude protein consumption, apparent feed conversion and storage density variaties during the initial growth phase (from 1.6 to 8 kg of body weight) in pirarucu in ponds submitted to different nutritional plans, in order to obtain information to promote a higher productive efficiency of the species. Therefore, ninety juveniles of pirarucu with a mean initial weight of 1,612 ± 27 g, were allocated to a excavated pond measuring 950 m2, divided into 15 hapas of 50 m2 and 1.5 m depth for an experimental period of 283 days, fed three times a day. Nutritional Plans (NP) were based on budget rates (mean body weight per hapa), (% peso corporal médio por hapa), NP1 4,0; 3,5; 3,0; 2,5%, NP2 3,5; 3,0; 2,5; 2,0%; NP3 3,0; 2,5; 2,0; 1,5%, NP4 2,5; 2,0; 1,5; 1,0% and NP5 2,0; 1,5; 1,0; 0,5% and at the crude protein level (38 and 36%), being adjusted according to the fish weight. Throughout the experiment, the water parameters were kept within the appropriate range for the creation of tropical fish. In the nutritional plan with feed rates of 3 to 1.5%, intermediate to the other plans evaluated in this study, the fish approached the recommended slaughter weight, however with the deceleration of feed and protein intake and apparent feed conversion at the interval End of studied crop, which could contribute to the discharge of the breeding system, being such behavior an indicative of productive efficiency in the initial period of growth studied in this protocol of feed supply. The other nutritional plans evaluated may be recommended for pirarucus provided that the cost-benefit ratio between the needs of the market and the production system is evaluated, taking into account the time required to obtain the final slaughter weight, While the investment in feed will be offset by the marketing price of this fish at the end of the final stage of growth studied.