ROMANIA
SC Pirania SRL
Production increases but uncertainty threatens The carp farm SC Pirania uses cereals and sunower seed meal to achieve high growth rates and correspondingly high yields per hectare. Plans to develop further have been put on hold due to uncertainty regarding the use of dam lakes by ďŹ sh farmers.
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iadem Vasile Atodiresei the owner of SC Pirania has taken over another fish farm in Iasci expanding the area he has under production from 580 ha (in Botosani) to 968 ha. His production had reached the maximum possible at the existing site and the only way to increase it was to acquire more ponds. The species he produces are the usual mix of common carp, Chinese carps (grass, silver, bighead), together with smaller volumes of crucian carp, catfish, and pike-perch. More unusual is his use of extruded feed, a complex and expensive product typically used in the production of carnivorous species.
High yields thanks to extruded feed At Pirania this feed is given to the fish in their first year as the weather starts to warm up in March or April. Feeding continues until the middle
of June with the quantities of feed gradually increasing as the water temperature increases. Even after the fish are transferred to wintering ponds the feeding continues until November though the quantities are gradually reduced as the water temperature falls. The target species for this feed is the common carp as the other main species (silver carp, bighead carp) feed on phytoplankton and zooplankton, while grass carp feeds on weeds. The feed is from an Austrian supplier and has a protein content of at least 44. It is specifically designed for common carp giving a feed conversion ratio of 1 to 1. That is, one kilo of feed results in a kilo of carp. The combination of good quality water and the highperformance feed has resulted in high yields – in a small 3 ha pond, Mr Atodiresei hopes to harvest five tonnes of carp in a year, a yield of 1.7 tonnes per ha and roughly double the average of his fellow members
Diadem Vasile Atodiresei, the owner of SC Pirania SRL, mucks in during the harvesting operations.
of the Romanian Fish Farmers’ Association. However, these high yields demand that there is an electricity supply close to the pond, so that the water can be aerated. Oxygen levels in the water tend to fall at night, when there is no photosynthesis, which, combined with the consumption of oxygen by the fish at night, can reduce the oxygen content of the water to dangerous levels by the morning.
Water parameters need to be closely monitored with high performance feeds A human chain sends a tub full of fish from the nets in the lake to the shore.
Wintering ponds are deeper and less likely to freeze completely
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even if the winter is a harsh one, so that the fish have a better chance of survival. At Pirania, generally a three-year cycle is used to grow the fish to market size. However, in one of the ponds at the Iasci site, Mr Atodiresei is producing the fish in a two-year cycle. In the second year, when the fish weigh about 200 g, they are given the extruded feed so that by the time they are ready for harvest after two years they will weigh 3-4 kg. Extruded feeds are usually used in small ponds as it is easier to monitor parameters such as the oxygen content of the water, as well as the levels of nitrogen and phosphorus. Currently, the main product form that Pirania &VSPl TI .BHB[JOF