Source: www.fishconsult.org
Video credit: Fadhili Ruzika (Tanzania)
Review: Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the site and video channel)
This video was taken during May, 2014 in Damietta region (Egypt)
The culture of silver carp, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix in cages in River Nile, Egypt is a 3-year old practice. Tilapia used to be the principal species cultured in cages in River Nile. However, the rapid expansion of cages coped with the growing environmental concerns led to the banning of tilapia cages in River Nile and this was in the mid-2000s.
Cage farmers in their attempt to comply with the environmental regulations shifted to the farming of silver carp in cages. This shift is based on the feeding habits of silver carp as plankton feeder and hence no artificial feed is used. The farm gate price is low due to the intramuscular bones that negatively affect the consumer acceptance. However, the low production costs of silver carp in such non-fed system encouraged the cage culture of silver carp especially cages were already there.
The stocking rate in the current practice is 3000-4000 piece/cage of 10 m length x10 m width x5 m depth. After about 18-month growing season, cages are harvested whereas average weight reaches about 1.5 kg/piece. A part of harvested silver carp is marketed locally while quantities of produced carp have been exported through Iraqi traders who are using road transport and refrigerated trucks.
