Abstract
An experiment was conducted to assess the effect of aeration using blower on growth and production of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) in intensive aquaculture system in six (6) earthen ponds at BAU campus, Mymensingh from May to September, 2016. Treatment 1 (T1) with 3 aerated ponds and Treatment 2 (T2) with 3 non-aerated ponds were designed with similar stocking density (300/decimal) of tilapia. Oxygen supply was ensured by blower for 9 hours daily when oxygen depletion occurs in pond water. Fish growth, pond water and soil quality parameters were sampled and assessed. The DO content in the aerated ponds was higher (7.23 mg/l) from the beginning to the end of experiment compared to non-aerated ponds (2.33 mg/l). There were significant differences (p<0.05) of DO content between two treatments at first and last sampling stages. The higher length (15.64±1.56 cm) and weight gain (143.36±39.33 gm), higher SGR (% per day) for tilapia was (2.54±0.00) found in T1 compared to T2 (2.42±0.00) with significant differences (p<0.05) between two treatments. In addition, the higher production of tilapia was obtained in T1 (9581.87±0.00 kg/ha/100 days) compared to T2 (6490.80±0.00 kg/ha/100 days). The average phytoplankton production was relatively higher in T2 and conversely zooplankton abundance was higher in T1 without any significant differences (p>0.05) between the treatments for the abundances of various groups of phytoplankton and zooplankton. Different water quality parameters were found with the better range in aerated ponds. Various intrinsic relationships between DO and other water quality and weather parameters showed that DO content had negative relationships with rainfall, air pressure and humidity but the relationships were not statistically significant. Moreover, different soil quality parameters of pond sediments were found in ideal range for fish culture in both treatments. These results suggest that aeration can be a potential mechanism of aqua-farming to enhance the growth and production of tilapia and DO content in pond water synchronizing other water quality parameters in ponds.J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 15(1): 113-122, January 2017
Highlights
Aquaculture is the fastest growing animal based food-producing sector, in developing countries like Bangladesh and its production contributes to the livelihoods, employment and fulfills the nutritional demand for millions of people
The Dissolved oxygen (DO) content in the ponds of Treatment 1 (T1) was higher from the beginning to the end of experiment except at one stage of sampling (31-May-16) where mean values of dissolved oxygen were similar in both treatments possibly due to technical problem of blower (Fig. 2)
Percent weight gain, specific growth rates and production of tilapia were found significantly (p
Summary
Aquaculture is the fastest growing animal based food-producing sector, in developing countries like Bangladesh and its production contributes to the livelihoods, employment and fulfills the nutritional demand for millions of people. Bangladesh has achieved 6th position among the world’s major aquaculture producing countries (FAO, 2016) and the total production of fish is around 3.6 million MT in 2014-2015, of which inland fisheries contributed 83.71% comprising 55.93% from aquaculture and 27.79% from capture fisheries (DoF, 2016). Intensive aquaculture is growing to enhance national fish production in the context of population growth and declining land resource that is required to construct ponds. To fulfill the animal protein demand for teeming population in Bangladesh intensive fish culture system may be the alternative to enhance fish production since fish contributes about 60% of animal protein to our daily food (DoF, 2016)
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