THE STUDY OF RICE EEL FARMING (MONOPTERUS ALBUS) IN THE RECIRCULATION SYSTEM

Abstract

The study of rice eel farming (Monopterus albus Zuiew, 1793) in the recirculation system is to find out a suitable model for rice eel growth and contribute to responding to climate change. The average length and weight  of the rice eels were 22.28 ± 0.21 cm/inds and 14.65 ± 0.48 g/inds, respectively. The experiment was conducted with two treatments: the control treatment and the recirculation treatment; each of them was repeated 3 times in 180 days. Rice eel was fed with 80% fresh trash fish and 20% pelleted pellets with 30% protein. The results showed that the environmental factors such as temperature, pH, N-NH3-, N-NO2- and alkalinity were in suitable range for rice eel growth during the experiment. The survival rate was not different between the two treatments. Weight growth rate in the recirculation system (97.70 ± 9.04 g/inds) was higher than the control (80.67 ± 0.16 g/inds) (p<0,05). Feed conversion ratio (FCR) in two treatments was not different with 2.49 ± 0.05% and 2.41 ± 0.22%. The amount of water was added in recirculation system (3.12 m3/tank) during 180 days only 1/10 compared with thecontrol (32.8 m3/tank). These results showed that the recirculation system was perfectly suited for the growth and development of rice eel.