Description

Abstract: Following a period of rapid expansion in the early 1990s, tilapia farming in Honduras continues to be a growing industry. This survey of management systems employed at tilapia farms in Honduras, based on interviews conducted between July and September 1998 with managers from 11 farms that supply both domestic and export markets, examines the species cultivated in largest quantity–a hybrid of Oreochromis mossambicus, O. urolepis hornorum, O. aureus, and O. niloticus known as Jamaican red tilapia. The survey revealed that while many farms originally harvested production for the export market, limited and/or irregular production necessitated a scaling back to local distribution. Large farms were found to contain an average of 54 ponds compared with small farms, which operated an average of 33 ponds. In General, ponds in a farm were distributed by total area in the following manner: 5.9% for reproduction and sex inversion, 21% for pre-grow-out, 31.8% for grow-out I, and 41.1% for grow-out II. Sex inversion of fry was practiced on all farms, with varying degrees of success, using daily treatments of 17?-methyltestosterone administered through feed. For most farms, water exchange was the primary method of maintaining water quality during grow-outs I and II. Farms that also implemented water exchange during pre-grow-out reported larger biomasses at the end of this stage of production.