Why Aquaculture Trials Have Not Been Successful in Tanzania? 125Importantly, questions arise about the long-term sustainability of wild
caught fingerlings and the effect on biodiversity and recruitment if the
aquaculture industry expands. The field work in Zanzibar revealed that most
sites which previously had plenty of these organisms have started experiencing
shortages of wild fingerlings, thus the pressure and desirability of setting up a
hatchery. A good example is the acute shortage of sea cucumber fingerlings
now along the Pemba coastal area compared to the 80s. To address the above
shortcomings, there is a need to set up a system which will ensure that the
production and distribution of fingerlings to farmers is carried out as a
business. Wetengere et al. (2008) indicated that one farmer in Mahenge
District in Morogoro region was able to do a lot of fish farming extension
simply because he earned more income from selling of fingerlings than selling
food fish and other farming products (ibid.). Later, however, as more ponds
were stocked and demand for fingerlings decreased, so did his extension
efforts. This shows how a lack of consistent demand for fingerlings has
hindered the development of private fingerling producers and distributors in
many areas (ibid.). This should serve as a lesson for fingerling production and
distribution system which is intended to operate on commercial basis.
Feeding and Fertilization
Feeding is an important and critical issue for the higher trophic animals
that need a high-energy, high-protein diet such as marine finfish, mud crab as
well as shrimp. Milkfish were fed maize bran, rice bran, rice polishing,
cassava meal and copra meal. The daily ration recommended was 10% of body
weight at a feeding frequency of 2-3 times a day throughout the culture cycle
(Wetengere and Madalla, 2011). Mud crabs were fed gastropods, trash fish and
fish offal at a daily ration of 10% of body weight and a feeding frequency of
twice a day. Fertilization was only an issue for milkfish ponds (ibid.).
However, due to distance of the pond from the homesteads and unavailability
of fertilizers, most ponds were fertilised only once per culture cycle. The
fertiliser used was animal manure (cattle, chicken and goat) which was put in
20kg sacks and placed in the pond (ibid.). Management in most aquaculture
projects in Tanzania was very poor due to ponds/cages located far from the
homestead and unavailability of inputs (ibid.). Ponds/cages in some areas were
located as far as 5 km away from homesteads and the environment was not
conducive to proper management.