Abstract

Aquatic polyculture has been well documented as a viable option for increasing yields in many types of aquaculture systems. This paper describes an experiment focused on polyculture as a way of increasing yields from marron (Cherax tenuimanus) ponds in Western Australia. Silver perch (Bidyanus bidyanus) were stocked into floating cages in earthen marron ponds for an 18-month grow-out period. At harvest, the mean final weight of marron reared in polyculture with silver perch was significantly higher than marron reared in monoculture (P<0.05). Marron survival averaged 71.5±3.4% with mean final weight of females significantly lower than males in all treatments (P<0.05). Silver perch achieved the highest final weight when stocked free-range in marron ponds (P<0.05) with a density effect apparent between high and low density caged treatments. All polyculture treatments returned significantly higher pond yields than marron monocultures (P<0.05), except for the free-range treatment (P=0.08), which had relatively high standard error. This research demonstrates the potential of aquatic polyculture to increase systems yields and profitability of crayfish ponds in Western Australia.

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