Volumen 42 - Número 3: 261-267 | 2007
Article

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Effect of the initial stocking body weight on growth of spotted rose snapper Lutjanus guttatus (Steindachner, 1869) in marine floating cages

Sergio Castillo-Vargasmachuca¹, Jesús T. Ponce-Palafox^2,1, Ernesto Chávez Ortíz³ and José Luis Arredondo-Figueroa^4*

¹Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit-CBAP and CUVEDES, Ciudad de la Cultura Amado Nervo, C.P. 63000, Tepic, Nayarit, México
²Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos-CIB, Avenida Universidad 1001, CP 62209, Cuernavaca, México
³Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas, Av. IPN s/n, Col. Playa Palo de Santa Rita, CP 23000, La Paz, Baja California Sur, México
⁴Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Iztapalapa, Planta Experimental de Producción Acuícola, Departamento de Hidrobiología, CBS, México, Av. San Rafael Atlixco 186, Colonia Vicentina Iztapalapa 0940, CP 09340, México DF

*This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Spotted rose snapper were stocked at body weight sizes of 24.5 ± 3.7 g, 55.4 ± 3.5 g, and 110.2 ± 4.6 g in three replicated marine floating cages of 100 m³ and reared for 153 days at Santa Cruz de Miramar in Nayarit, Mexico, to determine the appropriate stocking body weight size. Caged snapper were fed twice a day with commercial pellets containing 35% crude protein during the first three months and 25% during the last two months, respectively. The water temperature of cages ranged from 25.6 to 32.3°C. Mean survival ranged from 67.5 to 74.7%. Stocking body weight sizes of snapper exerted significantly different (P ≤ 0.05) effects on the final biomass. The maximum mean weekly weight gain was 12.8 g week^-1 in cages with the 110.2 ± 4.6 g body weight size. These results suggest, as a good strategy, the introduction of snappers with a total weight of 110 g for grow out in marine cages culture.

Key words: Pisces, Lutjanidae, cage culture, aquaculture, survival