Abstract
Abstract Introduction More eco-friendly aquaculture technology is required to reduce environmental pollution which has become a major issue in aquaculture industries in the last few decades. Aquaponics system is a culture technology to solve this waste issue. Thus, this study aimed at comparing growth performances, feed utilization efficiency, and nutrient recovery in aquaponics and conventional aquaculture system. Materials and methods Twenty-four juveniles of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) weighing 1.12 ± 0.1 g were cultured in either aquaponics systems or conventional aquaculture systems for 30 days. Each system had three culture systems as replicates. The fish were fed the same amount with a commercial pellet three times a day. Results The result showed that the Nile tilapia reared in the aquaponics system had a significantly higher specific growth rate than that of fish reared in the conventional system, 7.5 and 6.3% BW/day, respectively. Similarly, the feed utilization efficiency of fish reared in the aquaponics was also significantly better than that of fish in the conventional system. Furthermore, the total biomass harvested from the aquaponics system was nearly eight times higher than the total biomass harvested from the conventional system. Conclusion Growth, feed utilization efficiency, and total nutrient recovery in terms of biomass were higher in the aquaponics system. These results suggest that aquaponics is not only an eco-friendly aquaculture system, but also could produce more biomass than a conventional aquaculture system, and therefore, could be scaled up in a commercial scale.
Highlights
Aquaculture waste has become a major issue in aquaculture industries in the last few decades
Ten percent of the feed nitrogen and 44% of the phosphorus feed were accumulated in sediments, while the rest of feed nitrogen was dissolved as ammonia-bound nitrogen released via the gills and phosphorus was secreted through urine as orthophosphate in the water column
At the beginning, the weight of tilapia juvenile stocked to the aquaponics system was not significantly different from the weight of tilapia juvenile stocked in the conventional aquaculture system (t = 0.09, df = 4, p = 0.93)
Summary
Aquaculture waste has become a major issue in aquaculture industries in the last few decades. Lupatsch and Kissil [1], for instance, predicted that only 22% of nitrogen and 29% of phosphorus in feed were taken up by fish as growth. Cao et al [2] reported that the discharge of aquaculture waste could result in a remarkable increase of organic matter which later deteriorated water quality and eutrophication, the excessive growth of phytoplanktons leading to imbalances in primary and secondary productivity [3]. To avoid such issue, eco-friendlier aquaculture systems have been developed including autotrophic biofloc technology [4] and aquaponics system
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