Blood cockles Tegillarca granosa growth performance

Abstract

Blood cockles Tegillarca granosa culture in natural habitat is one of the way to increase national production in addition to harvesting natural resources today, but culture in pond is rare to Malaysia. Many factors need to be considered before the study of blood cockles in the pond is to be carried out. The presence of plankton as a food source is a key factor in obtaining optimal blood cockles growth. The study was conducted in two ponds with different treatments. Pond one used commercial probiotic for water treatment and pond two was as a control. Fertilization was carried out weekly while water exchange was carried out monthly. Measurement of water quality and chlorophyll a content were performed once a month. As a result of 12 month of culture, blood cockles from pond one average length was 22.85+1.80mm and for pond two average length was 25.36+3.00mm. Blood cockles length growth rate for pond one was 0.66mm/month while for pond two was 0.99mm/month.