Some recommendable aquaculture species for South Africa

Abstract

Fish farming has a rather long history and there is a great deal of pratical knowledge in oriental countries. Especially in China, it began some 4,000 years ago. However, scientifically studied aquaculture is one of the youngest and often of the least appreciate science in the world. Since it has a history of only thirty years, aquaculture is not yet fully studied, but, progress made in the past thirty years is in far excess of that in any previous century. The current aquaculture items in Taiwan are more than forty species of finish, molluscs, crustaceans, reptiles and seaweeds. Some twenty more species are believed to become aquaculture candidate in near future. Among those sixty aquaculture species, it may happen to have minor species that are not optimum to introduce to the Republic of South Africa owing to biological restriction of the aquatic animal or plant itself, preference in food and social resons. The other majority are worthy of recommendation upon overcoming some exsiting problems. Based on the view points such as fingerling supply, optimum water temperature for growth, the prospects of future development, four species of finish and four species of prawns are highly recommended for aquaculture of first stage. They are red tilapia, grey mullet, sea perch, milkfish; grass prawn, red-tailed prawn, kuruma prawn and giant freshwater prawn and the related considerations are thus discussed for valuable reference.