Pyrrhulina brevis (Steindachner, 1876) as a new option for the national ornamental fish farm: larviculture

Abstract

In the international trading of ornamental fish, the Amazonian fish are prominent, however the mostly fish are captured from the extractive fishery, generating pressure on natural populations. Thus, the development of farming technologies for these species should be considered as a new field to be explored by the Brazilian aquaculture, generating income and protection of natural stocks. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of Pyrrhulina brevis larvae at different stocking densities, feeding frequency, feeding rate and resistance to salinized water. The first experiment was conducted in a factorial arrangement with 4 concentrations of Artemia sp. nauplii larvae^-1 day^-1 (50, 100, 150 and 200) and two feeding frequencies (2 or 4 meals). The stocking density assay was conducted with 6 treatments (1, 5, 10, 20, 40 and 80 larvae L^-1). The evaluation at salinized water resistance was realized by factorial arrangement with 4 stocking densities (1, 5, 10 and 15 larva L^-1) and 4 salt concentrations (0, 2, 4 and 6 g L^-1). The best feeding and frequency ratio that promoted higher growth and survival was 150 Artemia sp. larvae^-1 day^-1 distributed in the four daily meals, the best stocking density was 40 larvae L^-1 and the larvae could be reared in salinized water as prophylactic measure at 2 g L^-1 since the density is not superior to 5 larvae L^-1.