Assessing cage culture potentiality of long whiskers catfish, Mystus gulio (Hamilton, 1822) in relation to climate change adaptation in Bangladesh coast.

Climate change-induced sea-level rise, salinity intrusion, sudden water surge, natural calamities, etc. affect the fish biodiversity, food security, and coastal livelihoods that highlight the necessities of developing climate-resilient strategies e.g. adaptive aquaculture techniques. Cage culture of salinity-tolerant fish may be an adaptation strategy to compensate for the losses of freshwater fish production by climate change in coastal areas. Therefore, a 120-day long field experiment was conducted to evaluate the cage culture potentiality of Mystus gulio in the coastal region of Bangladesh. Three treatments at the stocking density of 90 (T₁), 135 (T₂), and 180 (T₃)/m² were stocked in nine cages (1.115 m²). Significantly (p<0.05) higher growth performance and feed utilization were recorded in T₁ followed by T₂ and T₃. In return, considering overall growth, survival, production, coast-benefit analysis, T₂ was found more profitable followed by T₃ and T₁. This result revealed that the culture of M. gulio in floating net cages might be a potential climate-adaptive aquaculture technique in the coastal region. However, further research works are necessary for optimizing stocking density, nutrition, social acceptance, etc. before conclude it as a viable climate-resilient adaptive aquaculture practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]