Fry Survival Rate as a Predictive Marker of Optimal Production of Silver Carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, Valenciennes 1844): A Biostatistical Study in Deroua Fish Farm, Morocco

Several indicators show that the world population is rapidly increasing with prospects of reaching close to 10 billion people in 2050. Optimal production of fish is a tentative goal to ensure human feeding and resources sustainability. The present study was performed on eggs of the silver carp, collected during the breeding season of consecutive years with different environmental temperature profiles at the Deroua Fisheries Station to evaluate the seasonal and inter-seasonal changes of eggs quality in order to promote a predictive marker for optimal production of silver carp. The viability of the obtained eggs was detected using ANOVA followed by the Tukey test to analyze fertilization rate, embryos survival rate, and fry survival rate. Data analysis showed no significant difference in the fertilization and survival rate of the embryos during the two breeding seasons, and therefore these can not be used as an adequate criterion to predict the viability of the fry of silver carp. Although the survival rate of the fry did not change during the first season, it changed significantly during the second when there was an increase in the environmental temperature. This factor could be responsible for the disturbance of the females’ oogenesis and consequently the degradation of the eggs’ quality. The results showed that the fry survival rate could be used as a parameter to predict the yield of silver carp production rather than the success of fertilization and the survival of embryos. This paper discusses the importance and scope of this approach.