I may have answered some of my own questions, which I am sure ML and Rad have addressed in the past.
Excerpts from:
Aquaculture Presents New Opportunities for Puerto Rican
Farmers
By
Michael V. McGee, Ph.D.
Caribe Fisheries Inc.
Lajas, PR
Over the last twenty-five years the fastest growing sector of agriculture
world-wide has been aquaculture. Simply put, aquaculture is the propagation
and production of aquatic species under controlled conditions. Similar to
traditional agriculture in many respects aquaculture farms produced nearly
46,000,000 metric tons of products in 2000. Today a large percentage of
fresh water fish species consumed for food including Tilapia, catfish, carp,
trout, and pacu, are produced by farmers. An increasing percentage of
saltwater species including oysters, clams, shrimp and salmon are also farmraised.
New species and production techniques are continually being
developed and evaluated. While richer nations have often been leaders in
terms of education and technology, developing countries especially in
tropical regions have in many cases received the most economic benefit
from the “blue revolution”, as the modern aquaculture industry is sometimes
called.
Beyond these species which are well known in Puerto Rico new species are
now available locally which hold great potential for successful aquaculture
production. Fish of the genus Colossoma known also as pacu or cachama are
native to the Amazon River basin in northern South America. These fish are
widely cultured throughout tropical regions of South and Central America.
Pacu grow quickly to a large size and are well accepted as a food and sport
fish. These fish are tolerant of poor water quality and crowding and can be
stocked at high densities in ponds. In polyculture with Tilapia they appear to
reduce unwanted reproduction. Pacu themselves cannot reproduce in the
pond environment
