Lecture 7
Cage culture
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Cage culture
• Intensive culture practice
• Cage culture is the confinement of fish stocks in cages.
It was originated in far-east about a century ago
• Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Philippines,
Norway, Malaysia, Island of java have now scientifically
undertaken cage culture in a large scale
• The biggest development have been made in Japan with
the floating cage cultivation of Yellow-tail
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Site selection for Cage Culture
• Depending on-
• Environmental parameters
• Topography
• Type of cages & fishes cultured
Sub-littoral areas
Off-shore environments
• In sub-littoral areas,
• Variation between high & low water should be as small as possible
• There should be adequate recirculation within the cage at neap
tides
• In off-shore areas,
• Designed should be in such a way that they can withstand
hurricanes, typhoons or mean hourly wind speed
• Protected bays, lagoons & other backwater areas are more suitable
for cage culture
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Types of Cages
Cages are of 3 types-
i. Surface cages resting on the bottom thus occupying the full
water column
ii. Cages floating at the water surface
iii. Submerged cages either floating in mid water or resting on the
bottom
Materials used in the construction of cage
The basic requirements for construction of different types of cages are-
• Frame works (Bamboo, wooden poles, galvanized steels)
• Enclosures (Natural fiber, synthetic fiber, meshes of galvanized
steel)
• Floats (Old sealed tar coated oil drum, fiberglass drums, light-
weight ferro-cement container)
• Anchoring materials with rope
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Shapes & Dimensions of cages
• Depending on the species cultured &
types of materials used cages may have a
size varying between 1 – 100 m3
• Shapes
- Box like cages with square or
rectangular are more preferred
- Octagonal
- Decagonal
- Dodecagonal are also used in
mariculture
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Methods of Construction of different cages
• Simple floating cage
• Raft with cages
• Floating cage for mariculture operations
• Shrimp cage
• Crab cage
• Bamboo cage
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Methods of Construction of different cages
• Simple floating cage
- Box like structure of 1m × 1m× 1m closed on all sides
- Made of polyethylene monofilament webbing of 2 mm mesh size
- The frame is made up of iron rod which is coated with 2 layers of anti-
corrosive paints
- The simple cage for use as a submerged cage is fixed with 2 poles
- For fabricating simple floating cages, long lasting materials like
galvanized steel sheets can be used
- Such cages are provided with 4 floats 1 at each corner at the top to
help in floatation
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Methods of Construction of different cages
• Raft with cages
- The rafts are made up of casuarina poles arranged in such a way that
a gap of 60 cm is available between the poles
- The poles are tied with nylon rope
- The spaces between the poles are used as catwalks & for fixing
floats which are empty sealed oil drums of 200L capacity
- The raft is held in suspension through mooring with the help of
hooked granite stones
- Rectangular nylon net cages of 1 cm mesh & 2.5m × 1.5m × 4m size
supported by galvanized steel bottom are suspended from the raft
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Methods of Construction of different cages
• Floating cage for mariculture operations
- This floating cage is provided with a major metal skeleton as the
supporting structure
- The skeleton consists of an upper & a lower ring of 4 m diameter
each
- There is also an outer ring of 5 m diameter in line with the bottom
ring
- All 3 rings are made up of galvanized iron pipes of 5 cm thickness
- There is a 0.5 m space between the inner & outer ring
- A circular bag like net of 5 m height & 1 cm mesh is tied to the upper
ring of the collar
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Methods of Construction of different cages
• Shrimp Cage
- The cages for shrimp culture in brackish water may be floating or fixed
type
- Made from nylon screen with meshes of 10-40/sq. cm
- The dimensions of the cages vary from 3.5 m × 2 m × 1 m to 8-12 m × 5 m
×1m
- The fixed cages are tied firmly with the poles & 2/3 of the cage is kept
in side the water
- The bottom of the cage is above 30 cm of the surface of the bottom
sediment
- Sinkers are tied at the 4 corners of the cages (floating cage)
- The top of the floating cages attached to a frame of casuarina pole
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Methods of Construction of different cages
• Crab cages
- It is a bottom contact cage of 2m × 2m × 0.5m with 16 compartments
- Used for culturing Scylla serrate in shallow brackish water
- It is fabricated using bamboo splits has to be maintained for
facilitating free flow of water into the cages for the supply of food &
oxygen
- A provision is also made to close the cage at the top
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Methods of Construction of different cages
• Bamboo cages
- Size: 2m × 1m × 1m or 1m × 1m × 1m
- Made using splits of bamboo arranged in a crosswise manner
- May also be made by bamboo splits joined with coir ropes
- These cages may be installed in shallow brackish water with bamboo
supports at the four corners & the bottom
- Circular cages of 1.5 m height & 1 m circumference made of thick
bamboo strips tied with nylon twines
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Culturable Species for cage culture
• Chanos chanos (Milk fish) • Penaeus indicus
• Liza macrolepis (Mugil) • P. monodon
• Lates calcarifer (Sea bass) • Panulirus homarus
• Lutjanus sp.
Stocking density for cage culture
• >10 times of pond culture
• Optimum stocking densities for P. monodon & P. indicus: 10 & 20/m2
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