February 15-18, 2009 Washington State Convention Center Seattle ...

GROWTH RATE OF JUVENILE AMAZONIAN PAICHE Arapaima gigas, FED FORAGE
FISH OR PRACTICAL DIET AND RAISED UNDER CAPTIVITY: IMPLICATIONS FOR ITS
COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION
Manuel Sandoval*, Juan Lao, Beatriz Sandoval and Wilson Castillo
Centro de Acuicultura Tropical, Facultad de Zootecnia
Universidad Nacional Agraria de la Selva
Tingo María, Perú
msandtm@msn.com
Arapaima gigas, is one of the largest freshwater fishes of the Peruvian Amazon basin. This fish is known as paiche in Peru or
pirarucu in Brazil and it can grow up to 3m in length and can weigh over 200kg. The meat has an excellent nutritional profile
in terms of protein, essential fatty acids and amino acids. Because of overfishing, paiche is listed by the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This has prompted the need to raise paiche in captivity to preserve the species
in their natural habitat and establish a sustainable production for human consumption. The present study was conducted to
investigate whether feeding a commercial practical diet to juvenile paiche would improve growth rate more efficaciously than
a forage diet.
A 12-week trial was conducted with juvenile (420g) paiche. Two experimental groups of 24 animals each were established:
1) forage fish diet Cichlassoma amazonarum (FF), and 2) commercial practical fish diet with 40% protein (PD). The animals
were raised in cages (n=8/cage) and placed into an artificial pond. The feeding regime was 2.5% of body mass and administered
twice daily; water quality was checked three times per week. After 12 weeks, A. gigas fed a FF had significantly (P < 0.01)
higher growth rate compared to A. gigas fed the PD (Table 1).
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