Credit: Hai DO Xuan (Vietnam)
Review: Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the website)
The inserted photos show the feeding of caged cobia (Rachycentron canadum) in Vietnam where most cobia farmers rely on trash-fish in the grow-out phase in spite of its relatively poor feed conversion ratio of approximately 5 and even higher. While minority of cobia farmers use pellets in the nursery stages of grow-out, most cobia farmers are hesitant to move to pelleted feed especially when the economic viability of their operations is precarious.
The dependence on wild-caught fish as feed is considered a constraint to the long-term development of marine aquaculture including cobia. In that regard, there is ongoing promotion towards the use of pelleted feed which is seen more reliable, has much better feed conversion ratio and in the same time the use of pelleted feed implies less incidences of diseases and fewer environmental problems.
