Milkfish nursery pond and pen culture in the Indo-Pacific region

Abstract

In culturing milkfish (Chanos chanos ) to marketable size, the fry (total length = 12-15 mm) are usually reared first in nursery ponds or pens (hapa nets) until they become fingerlings (total length = 2 cm or more). The fingerlings are then transferred to the grow-out ponds or pens where they are reared to marketable size. In some countries like the Philippines, fingerling production has become an industry by itself. This paper reviews the state of the art and constraints to and suggests future research directions for milkfish fingerling production in nursery ponds and pens.