This document describes different types of aquaculture practices based on salinity levels: mariculture for saltwater environments, metahaline culture for supersaline areas, brackishwater culture, and freshwater culture. For each environment, various culture methods are outlined, such as cage culture, raft culture, rack culture, and integrated fish farming. Culture techniques like monosex culture and air-breathing fish culture are also summarized.

1. Types of Aquaculture Practices
Dr. K. Rama Rao
Department of Zoology
Phone: 9010705687

3. Depending on hydrobiological
features (particularly salinity)
aquaculture is divided into:
(I) Mariculture,
(II) Metahaline culture,
(III) Brackish water culture and
(IV) Freshwater culture

4. I. Mariculture:
India has a long coastal and open sea area,
which offers wide scope for culture operations
of fin fishes and shellfishes.
For the culture of fish, prawns and lobsters
floating cages are used.
Racks, rafts, rope, pole and long lines are used
for culture of mussels, particularly pearl
oysters.
Sea-weeds also are widely cultured with the
help of nets or webbings.

5. a) Cage culture
It is an aquaculture production system
made of a floating frame, net materials
and mooring system (with rope, buoy,
anchor etc.) with a round or square
shape floating net to hold and culture
large number of fishes and can be
installed in reservoir, river, lake or sea.
Cage aquaculture involves the growing
of fishes in existing water resources

6. A catwalk and handrail is built around a
battery of floating cages. There are 4
types of fish-rearing cages namely: i)
Fixed cages, ii) Floating cages, iii)
Submerged cages and iv) Moveable
cages

7. b) Raft culture
Raft culture is one of the commercially
important method of intensive
aquaculture.
Raft are the rectangular wooden frames
floating on the water. They are made of
bamboo and made to flows by empty
dumps.
The basic raft unit consists of a
long floating rope buoyed with numerous
floats and anchored with fixed wooden

8. Single Floating Rope Raft
Single floating rope rafts are independently
positioned raft units, i.e. they are not joined to other
floating raft ropes but are anchored separately .
Block of Floating Rafts
A block of rafts is composed of between 10–40
floating kelp rope rafts joined together. Floating raft
ropes in parallel series are positioned 3–5 m apart
so that water circulation is not impeded.
Ostrea, Crassostrea and Pyncnodonta.

9. C) Rack culture
Rack culture is an improvement of
intertidal culture methods over the traditional
beach culture method.
Using steel racks placed into the sand or mud
bottom, plastic mesh bags filled with small
culture organisms are laid across the tops of
the racks where they are surrounded with
water when the tide comes in.
Ex: Mussels
Edible oysters

10. d) Pole culture
pole culture is mainly undertaken in France.
This is also called the “Bouchot”or
stake culture. The poles, used are big
branches or trunks of oak tree, 4–6 m in
length, which are staked in rows, 0.7 m apart
on soft and muddy bottoms of the intertidal
zone during low tide.
Mussel farming,
Green mussel,
Perna viridis,

11. e) Long-line culture
Long-line culture is an alternative to
raft culture in areas less protected from wave
action. A long- line supported by a series of
small floats joined by a cable or chain and
anchored at the bottom on both end is
employed.
Collected mussel spats on ropes or strings are
suspended on the line.

12. f) Bottom culture
Oysters have traditionally been cultured
on the bottom just like a wild
oyster. Bottom culture is placing the
oysters on the bottom of the oyster
lease or placing oyster shells on
the bottom of the lease to catch wild
oyster spate. Off bottom culture simply
means the oysters are grown off
the bottom of the river floor.
i) On-bottom culture
ii) Off-bottom culture

13. g) Artificial reef culture
These are artificial reefs are
intentionally placed benthic structures
built of natural or man-made materials,
which are designed to protect, enhance,
or restore components of Marine
ecosystem.
Their ecological structure and function,
vertical relief, and irregular surfaces
vary according to location, construction,

15. II. METAHALINE CULRURE
In off seasons of salt manufacture, the salt pans are
utilised for fish culture. Culture of brine shrimp
(Artemia salina) can be undertaken in these
supersaline salt pan (salinity more than 200%) area.
The nauplii of Artemia serve as a protein-rich live
food for the fin fishes and shellfishes. The dormant
eggs (cysts) of Artemia formed under unfavourable
conditions also can earn good foreign exchange.

16. Saltwater ponds
Saltwater ponds can also be called marine
ponds, as they are filled with saltwater like
the sea, and contain some of the same
species.
Salt marshes occur on the edge of saltwater
ponds and in sheltered coastal locations, like
the heads of bays. They contain mostly
coastal plants that are adapted to occasional
flooding by seawater

17. III. BRACKISHWATER CULTURE
Brackish water areas are rich in oxygen and
plankton. Brackish water organisms can be cultured
in various ways such as in tidal ponds, pens, cages
or by rack, raft or rope culture.
Mangrove crab, Scylla serrata are also cultured in
the shallow brackish water.

18. a) Bottom culture,
b) Raft culture,
c) Rack culture,
d) Cage culture
discussed in Mariculture system
.

19. e) Tidal ponds:
A shallow coastal inlet or bay that fills and
empties with water as the tide rises and
falls, often characterized by tidal flats and
marshes.
A body of water in a tidal region that is
maintained at a desired water level by gates
or other artificial means.

20. f) Pen Culture:
Pens generally refer to small enclosures used
for confinement or safe keeping of domestic
animals.
Pen culture. Pen culture is defined as raising
of fish in a volume of water enclosed on all
sides except bottom, permitting the free
circulation of water at least from one side.
This system can be considered a hybrid
between pond culture and cage culture.

21. Sites are selected where the barriers can be
constructed across narrow sections or channels in
order to reduce costs and increase the ease of
operation.

22. IV. FRESHWATER CULTURE
Freshwater aquaculture refers to raising
and breeding aquatic animals (fish, shrimp,
crab, shellfish, etc.) and plants for economic
purposes by the use of ponds, reservoirs,
lakes, rivers, and other inland waterways
(including brackish water), which play an
important role in the aquaculture industry.

23. a) Composite fish culture :
It is a system in which five or six different
species of fishes are grown together in a
single fishpond.
Fishes with different food habitats are
chosen so that they do not compete for
food among themselves. This ensures
complete utilization of food resources in the
pond.

24. b) Monosex culture:
Monosex refers to the culture of either all-
male or all-female populations, a sought
after approach in aquaculture.
This chapter reviews the advantages
of monosex population culture and details
the mechanisms to achieve it based on
different modes of sex determination
and sexual differentiation.

25. c) Monospecies Culture:
This is concerned with the culturing of
individual species of fish.
d) Air breathing Fish Culture:
Shallow water bodies with poor oxygen
content is used for culturing air breathing
fish species such as Channa, Clarias,
Heteropneustes, etc.

26. e) Predator-Prey Culture:
Predator-prey (murrel-tilapia) culture is also
undertaken in shallow waters and in
swampy areas.
Here, predator fish like murrels are cultured
along with their prey-fish, tilapia.

27. 2) Raceway
A raceway also known as a flow-through
system, is an artificial channel used in
aquaculture to culture aquatic organisms.
Raceway systems are among the earliest
methods used for inland aquaculture. ...
Freshwater species such as trout, catfish and
tilapia are commonly cultured in raceways

28. 3) Sewage-Fed Fish Culture:
In such culture sewage water after treatment
in oxidation ponds are utilised. Such water
contains high nutrients which are responsible
for production of plankton bloom, the food of
fishes.
4) Culture of Fishes in Temple Tanks:
The quality of the water in the unutilised
temple tanks are poor owing to stagnation.
Such tanks can be utilised for the culture of
fishes such as common carp, murrel, tilapia,
catfishes, etc.

29. 5) Culture of Fishes in Irrigation Tank:
Irrigation tanks are fitted with inlet and outlet
water sources, which can be profitably utilised
for culture of Indian major carps and exotic
carps.
6) Fish Culture in Recirculating System:
In areas of water scarcity, the recirculatory
system of fish culture is practised. Hence, water
is circulated continuously through a biological
filter.

30. 7) Ornamental Fish Culture:
Ornamental or aquarium fishes such as guppy
(Lebistes reticulatus), gourami (Trichogaster
trichopterus), goldfish (Carassius auratus), molly
(Mollienisia latipinna), siamese fighter (Betta
splendeus), sword tail (Xiphophorus helleri), etc.
are cultured due to their high demand in
international market

31. 8) Culture of Larvivorous Fishes:
Larvivorous fishes such as Oryzias
melastigma, Aplocheilus blochii and
Gambusia sp. are cultured. These fishes
help to control the vectors (mosquito, etc.)
and can save the human population from
many diseases.

32. 9) Fish Food Organisms:
Mass culture of protein-rich live fish food
organisms such as plankton (cladocerans, rotifers,
copepods, etc.) and tubifex worms, is being done
as they are essential for growing larvae of fin fish
and shellfish in culture systems.
10) Culture of Sport Fishes:
Cold water fishes such as trout, salmon, etc. are
cultured due to their sport value in places of high
altitude like Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir,
Kodaikanal, etc.

33. 11) coldwater fishery
Culture of coldwater fish in the Himalayas has
largely concentrated on the production of
stocking material for rivers and streams, and
some lakes.
Common carp produced in pond and rice-cum-
fish culture and for stocking lakes and reservoirs
in all Indian Himalayan states.

34. 12) Integrated Fish Farming:
Integrated fish farming is a system of
producing fish in combination with other
agricultural/livestock farming operations
centered around the fish pond. By-
product/wastes of crop can be used as feed,
manure for the fish pond and as feed for
livestock.

35. Here along with the culture of fishes,
agricultural crops (rice, banana, etc.) or
livestocks (pig, poultry, duck, cattle, etc.) are
cultured so as to get more return.