LABORATORY/PRACTICAL TOPICS
Seed Production
21 days was spent on larval rearing of Penaeus monodon and Siganus guttatus including hatchery standard operating procedures like water management, production of natural food, decapsulation of artemia cysts, monitoring of phsico-chemical parameters and harvesting/counting techniques.
Species Selection
Familiarization and identification of commercially important species for aquaculture purposes. Included were criteria and characteristics of favoured species for culture, its adoptability and performance in production.
Site Selection
Qualitative and quantitative measurements of soil and water in selected sites for pond development, hatcheries and other culture systems.
Pond Construction
Diking of pond compartments, familiarization and mastery of the use of the engineer's transit to estimate distance, contour elevation and area of the proposed 10-hectare freshwater and brackishwater site for pond development at the University of the Philippines in the Visayas in Leganes and Miag-ao.
Pen and Cage Culture
Net mending, mesh cutting and construction/repair of pens and cages.
Pond Culture
Pond preparation including gate construction, liming, poisoning, fertilizing, stocking, harvesting, counting, water management and feeding of P. monodon and L. calcarifer at SEAFDEC, Leganes Station.
Seaweed Culture
Identification of seaweed varieties with commercial importance, practicals in seed selection, cutting, tying, stalking and quality control of Eucheuma spinosum and E. cottonii seedlings held at Genu Farms, Eastern Bohol, Philippines.
Aquaculture Nutrition
Formulated diets computing nutritive profiles and essential amino acid requirements including stability tests of the feeds on P. monodon juveniles and milkfish for a 30 day period in 40-L flow-through fiberglass aquariums.
Post-Harvest Technology
Evaluated fish freshness using three standard methods: organoleptical, chamical and biological. Using any three methods, ice-storage studies were conducted for seven days to monitor the deterioration of fish flesh until it was unsafe for human consumption.
Other techniques involved fish salting/brining, smoking, canning, drying and depuration of fish and molluscs for two days.
Fish Health and Sanitation
Bio assay experiments were conducted on T. nilotica fingerlings using pesticides like quinine hydrochloride and other chemo-therapeutic agents expressing survival and mortalities in lethal concentration (LC) and/or tolerance limit (TL).
Other activities included the isolation and identification of bacteria and fungus through sensitivity tests, total plate counts and necropsy procedures.
Recirculating Systems
Involved experiments on oxygen consumption, temperature effects, salinity tolerance and ammonia excretion in T. nilotica fingerlings using phenol hydrochlorite for two hours and bio-assay tests using ammonium hydrochloride in 3-L glass beakers for 48 hours.
