One fish farmer in Bangladesh has demonstrated that it can be done. He used the recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) for the first time in the country.
An alternative to outdoor open aquaculture, RAS is a series of culture tanks and filters where water is continuously recycled and monitored to keep a suitable habitat for fish round the year. To prevent the deterioration of water quality, the water is treated mechanically through the removal of particulate matter and biologically through the conversion of harmful accumulated chemicals into nontoxic ones.
ABM Shamsul Alam, has pioneered the indoor fish farming by installing an eight-tank RAS in Mymensingh late last year.
He has recently marketed his first batch of 500kg of pabda.
Another 200kg of the fish are now in the pipeline while a huge stock of gulsha fish (Mystus Cavasius) should be ready for sale in a month, Shamsul told The Daily Star yesterday.
