In a previous carp grow-out study of L. gonius along with rohu,
catla and silver carp, observed lower growth and
biomass yield of kuria labeo compared to rohu, but the survival of the
two was similar. In another year-long grow-out study with the same
species combination, fringe-lipped carp in place of kuria labeo also
showed lower harvest weight and survival level than rohu (Jena et al.,
2011). Rohu, being a major carp species, was expected to perform
better than the two minor carps in the present seed rearing study. In
contrast, while the growth curves revealed relatively higher growth of
kuria labeo and fringe-lipped carp than rohu, the HBW in fringe-lipped
carp and kuria labeo across the treatments were similar or
higher than that of rohu revealing their similar growth potential
during their early growth stage. The survival in the two minor carps
also did not reduce at 30–40 m−2 densities unlike rohu. Such results
point toward the relatively better performance of these minor carps
than rohu in the multi-species fingerling rearing system. Among the
four treatments, T-4 with 40 m−2 density also yielded the highest
number of fingerlings (283%, 85% and 28% higher than T-1, T-2 and
T-3, respectively) as well as significantly higher biomass. Since
number of fingerlings harvested is often considered important factor
ahead of growth attainment in a seed rearing system, the present
results suggest 40 m−2 density as an effective density for the multispecies
fingerling rearing of these species