Two days old hatchlings were collected randomly and
stocked in glass aquaria containing 50 liters clean
pond water each with 50 numbers of larvae.
Altogether six aquaria were used and larvae stocked in
three aquaria were fed with freshly hatched artemia
nauplii and larvae stocked in rest three aquaria were
fed with filtered zooplankton collected from well
prepared fertilized ponds. The larvae were fed from
the third day after hatching (i.e. on the second of
stocking in the aquaria). The larvae were fed ad
libitum, twice daily (7am and 4 pm) and the
concentrations of the live feed (artemia nauplii/
zooplankton) in the aquaria were adjusted depending
on the residual live feed concentration in the tank.
Every day, about 30-40% of the water was exchanged
with fresh clean pond water (stored in a FRP tank).
The larval rearing was carried out for a period of 12
days and at the end of 12 days, the surviving larvae
were counted and survival percentage was calculated.
Ten numbers of larvae from each of the tank were
collected and there individual weight and length were
taken. The survival percentage and the growth data
(length and weight) were subjected to chi-square and
t-test, respectively for finding out the significant
difference between two different groups i.e. fed with
zooplankton and artemia nauplii. Further, 125
numbers of 12 days old larvae were stocked in a
cement cistern of 50m2 area having 6 inch soil bed and
prepared in advance following the procedure of
nursery ponds. The larvae were reared in the cement
cistern for period of 30 days and were fed with a
mixture of rice bran, mustard oil cake and dry fish
powder once daily. At the end of thirty days, all the
fish were harvested counted and length and weight of
fish were taken before stocking into stock pond.