P. Soundarapandian, M.J. Samuel, T. Kannupandi-1997
Journal of Aquaculture in the Tropics, 12(4): 261-266
Abstract:
In recent years aquaculture as an enterprise has assumed global importance. Macrobrachium malcolmsonii is one of the commercially important freshwater prawns of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan and is reported to be a possible candidate species for aquaculture. However, freshwater prawns have been a neglected resource in India till recently, which may be due to non-availability of sufficient seeds from natural resources to meet the farmers' demands. Availability of the M. malcolmsonii seeds found in the Cauvery river is restricted to the post monsoon months only (December to July). The seeds are not uniform in size and identification is a major problem in the post larval stage. Hence, Kanupandi (1995) emphasized the need for establishing more freshwater hatcheries to produce uniform size seeds in Tamil Nadu to meet the increasing demands for freshwater prawns, since the requirements cannot be met from natural resources, mass seed production is necessary under controlled conditions.
(Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Annamalai University, Parangipettai-608 502, Tamil Nadu, India)