CULTIVATION OF COMMON CARP, CYPRINUS CARPIO IN FLOATING CAGES DEPENDING ON DRY FISH AND BREAD

Current experiment was conducted in floating cages located in Shatt Al-Arab River at Hartha District, north Basrah to investigate the ability of using only dry bread (DB) and fish (DF) as feed for cultivation common carp, Cyprinus carpio. Twelve cages were used in thisexperiment, six cages were fed on 25% DF and 75% DB, while the other six cages were fed on 40% DF and 60% DB. Feeding ratio of 5% of fish weights were used for both ratios of DB and DF with daily food separated to two times (early morning and afternoon). Average fishweight were measured at the beginning of experiment, after 23 days and at the end of experiment after 56 days. Results of current experiment revealed that there were no significant differences (P> 0.05) between mortality ratio and growth criteria for fishes fed on two different ratios of DF and DB. Results of growth and food conversion rate are not encouraging. Average food conversion rate in this experiment was more than 6 in both ratio of feeding. From the point of view of economics, it is not recommended to use only DF and DB in feeding common carp cultivated in cages