Determining the Ideal Water Salinity level in Breeding Good

Quality Bangus

By:

Sean Ephraim Ligon Paulino

Luis Alfredo Espiritu De Mesa

Statement of the Problem:

The study is conducted to determine the ideal water salinity level in breeding good quality bangus. The researchers will determine the ideal water salinity level in breeding good quality bangus by answering the following specific problems:

How will the salinity of water affect the quality of bangus in terms of:

a. Size

b. Weight

c. Characteristic of scales

d. Quality of meat

Hypothesis

The level of salinity of seawater which is 30,000- 50,000 ppm is the ideal salinity level for bangus breeding.

Scope and Limitations: The study was conducted to determine the ideal level of water salinity in bangus cultivation. The researchers used one aquarium for each set-up. The environment that these set-ups have had was uniform throughout except for the level of salinity. This is to ensure that the results were accurate and was brought only by the experimental variable which is the level of salinity. The bangus fingerlings that were used for experimentation were from Pila, Laguna. The experimentation and recording of data were done in Metro Manila only. The researchers determined the effect of water salinity to bangus only. The researchers recorded data on the quality of bangus of each set-up and compared it in terms of: size, weight, characteristic of scales and quality of meat only. The researchers limited their expenses to an amount not greater than six thousand pesos.

Preparation of Set-ups (controlled variables are food and environmental

condition of the aquarium

Set-up ABangus fingerling was cultivated using water

imitating the salinity of freshwater (below

1000ppm).

Set-up BBangus fingerling was cultivated using water

imitating the salinity of

brackish water (more or

less 15,000ppm)

Set-up CBangus fingerling was cultivated using water

imitating the salinity of fully saline water

(more or less

40,000ppm)

Observation and Comparison of Bangus from

different set-ups

Analysis of DataFormulating of

Conclusion

Flow Chart of Procedure

Results:

The researchers recorded data observed in the development and growth of the bangus fingerlings in each of the set-ups on a daily basis. They did the finalization of their results after 22 days of bangus culture.

Table 1.1

Table 1.2

The growth of bangus in terms of size varies in every set-up. Set-up A on day 22 was able to produce bangus fishes that measures an average of 5.1 cm and an average weight of 85 grams, Set-up B on day 22 was able to produce bangus fishes that measures an average 5.4 cm and an average weight of 92 grams and Set-up C on day 22 was able to produce bangus fishes that measures an average of 4.9cm and an average weight of 81 grams. Based on this data Set-up B (Brackish water set-up) produced the largest fish. Set-up C which corresponded to seawater set-up produced the smallest one.

Conclusion:

In manipulating and imitating water salinities used in the experimentation, culturing bangus using waters with different salinities, the researchers were able to observe different characteristics of bangus fishes from different set-ups. The bangus fishes from different set-ups did not differ in one aspect but in various characteristics, namely: the size, weight, quality of scales and meat. This observation made the researchers conclude that the use of brackish water for bangus cultivation produced bangus fishes with the best quality.

Recommendation:

With these findings, the Bureau of Fish and Aquatic Resources might consider to do further studies in determining the perfect salinity for culturing bangus and more than that, future researches about this study should consider the protein content of the bangus in each set-up, for this is the utmost measurement of fish quality and health. And since the researchers had limited materials and fund, it would be best to conduct further experimentations regarding this study for verification of the conclusion.