Breeding of milkfish

Breeding of milkfish

12.1. Distribution and importance

• Milk fish belongs to the Family Chanidae and Order Clupeiformes
• It is distributed in the Indo-Pacific region; commonly cultured in Indonesia, Taiwan, Philippines, etc.
• Found in both the coasts of India, but is more abundant on the east coast.
• Milk fish is hardy, highly resistant to diseases, euryhaline, herbivorous and easy to culture.
• Can be cultured in freshwater, brackishwater and marine waters.
• It is not only an excellent food fish, but also an ideal bait fish for tuna.
• Grows to 400-500g in 5-6 months.
• Improved culture methods have led to higher demand for fingerlings, the main source being the natural waters.

Identifying characters

• Mouth small and inferior.
• Dorsal origin midway between front border of eye and caudal base.
• Anal small; Caudal deeply forked.
• Body bluish-grey above, sides and abdomen silvery.
• Dorsal and caudal dusky.
• Pectoral, pelvic and anal dotted with black along their margins.

12.2. Brood-stock development

• Milk fish is heterosexual (no incidence of hermaphroditism).
• Both wild and captive broodfish respond to hormone injection.
• Captive broodstock is managed in brackish-water earthen ponds/cement ponds/cages.
• Fed with supplementary diet.
• Gonadal development is synchronous and six stages gonadal maturity are found.
• Males mature at 4+ years, while females take 5+ years to mature.
• Does not spawn naturally in captivity. 
• Spawns naturally in open sea during May-August.
• Difficult to identify ripe brooders based on morphological characters.
• Ova-diameter (0.70 - 0.89 mm) indicates ripe ova.
• Fecundity – 2-8 million/kg b.w. 

12.3. Induced spawning

• No. of injections – mostly two, sometimes only one; interval between the two – 8-12 h
• Water quality requirements: Salinity – 14-34 ppt, temperature - 21-31⁰C
• Interval between injection and striping : 6-17 h; stripping and artificial fertilization
• Natural spawning is preferred as it is very sensitive to handling; repeated spawning is possible.
• Hatching period : 20-25 h. 

Hormones and dosage are as follows

Hormone	Dosage
	Female	Male
Salmon Pituitary homogenate	6-10 mg/kg	1/3 dose
HCG	180-2500 IU/kg	1/3 dose
Carp Pituitary homogenate	5-25 mg/kg	1/3 dose
sGnRH-a/mLHRH-a	10-20 ug/kg	-

Larval rearing

• One-day-old hatchlings are fed with Chlorella spp.
• From the 2nd day, rotifer (Brachionus plicatilis) and Artemia nauplii are given .
• In about 20 days, the larvae reach 12-18 mm.