Fish farming of native species in Colombia: current situation and perspectives

Abstract

In Colombia and the rest of the world, the decrease in capture fisheries production has turned the aquaculture into an alternative source of protein for the populations food security as well as an important productive activity, generating employment and income for the rural communities. The Colombian pisciculture is based on red Tilapia Oreochromis sp. (Linnaeus), Rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum) and cachama blanca Piaractus brachypomus (Cuvier), which currently represent around 96% of the total national production. The remaining 4% comes from other farmed species such as bocachico Prochilodus magdalenae (Steindachner), carp Cyprinus carpio (Linnaeus) and yamúBrycon amazonicus (Spix & Agassiz). From the three main fish species, cachama blanca is the only native species, which has shown excellent performance in pond farming due to its rusticity, omnivorous habits, docility, meat quality, food conversion and disease resistance. The limited offer of Colombian fish farmed species determines its currently low competitiveness and restricted impact on the international markets; thus making necessary to explore the potential of new fish species in order to introduce them to the pisciculture system and to expand the range of fish farming species. A good alternative is the introduction of native catfish, which have great potential for fish farming activity.

Semen characteristics of the amazonian jundiá (Leiarius marmoratus Gill, 1870)

“…The Amazonian jundiá is a fish with potential for aquaculture due to its hardiness, its omnivorous preference, its ability to adapt well in intensive systems, and its white meat that is well accepted in the market. This species has an important role in aquaculture, Because the Amazonian jundai is widely used for hybridization in the northern, northeastern and mid-western regions of Brazil (CRUZ-CASALLAS et al 2011;MIRA LOPES, 2010).…”

Sustained swimming mitigates stress in juvenile Brycon amazonicus reared in high stocking densities

“…Coming from the Amazon, Orinoco, and Tocantins-Araguaia River basins, this species has spread out over the Southeast region of Brazil due to its high growth rate, good performance, and exquisite flesh (Arbeláez-Rojas & Moraes, 2010;Cruz-Casallas et al, 2011). It is also tolerant to transport, handling, and crowding (Abreu et al, 2008).…”

“…In South America, the Neotropical freshwater fish Brycon amazonicus is a promising species for fish culture (Cruz-Casallas et al, 2011). Coming from the Amazon, Orinoco, and Tocantins-Araguaia River basins, this species has spread out over the Southeast region of Brazil due to its high growth rate, good performance, and exquisite flesh (Arbeláez-Rojas & Moraes, 2010;Cruz-Casallas et al, 2011).…”

Sustained swimming improves fish dietary nutrient assimilation efficiency and body composition of juvenile Brycon amazonicus

“…Similarly, matrinxa Brycon amazonicus (Spix and Agassiz, 1829) shows real promise (Hackbarth and Moraes, 2006;Arbeláez-Rojas and Moraes, 2009;Cruz-Casallas et al, 2011) for fish farming. Since muscle protein and lipid bulks are related to body energy and resistance to environmental changes, their enhancement should be explored (Young and Cech, 1994).…”

“…The omnivorous freshwater fish matrinxa has proven to be commercially exploitable due to its many biological traits (which earned it the alias warm water trout). Matrinxa demands good quality water and is adaptable to high stocking densities and artificial feeding (Abreu et al, 2008;Arbelaéz-Rojas and Moraes, 2009;Cruz-Casallas et al, 2011). It is a migratory streamlined fish (Mounic-Silva and Leite, 2012), whose phenotypic traits have encouraged studies on adaptive responses to SS and growth performance.…”