Aquaculture of spiny lobsters in sea cages in Gujarat, India

Abstract

A total of 2,256 juveniles of the mud spiny lobster, Panulirus polyphagus with a mean carapace length of 40.44 mm and mean body weight of 67.83 g after acclimatization for a period of twelve weeks in 8000 litres FRP tanks were stocked in open sea cage near Veraval on the coast of Gujarat, India at a density of 12.4 m-3. The lobsters were fed twice daily with fresh fish and mollusc meat at 10% of lobster biomass per day. Monitoring of the water quality parameters in the vicinity of the cage found that they were well within the favourable ranges for shellfish culture indicating that the cage has not made any adverse impact on the local environment. The lobsters were harvested from the cage after 120 days at a mean wet weight of 212.65 g. Survival was 86.1 %. The results of this preliminary experiment indicate that there is commercial potential for the development of sea cage culture of Panulirus polyphagus in Gujarat.