International Journal of Aquaculture, 2017, Vol.7, No.13, 86-93
86
Research Article
Open Access
Periphyton Growth on Three Bio-substrates and Its Influence on the
Performance of Jaraqui (
Semaprochilodus insignis
)
Keshavanath P.
1
, Leao da Fonseca F.A.
2
, Affonso E.G.
1
, Nobre A.D.
1
, Jeffson N.P.
1
1 Aquaculture Division, National Institute of Research in the Amazon, Post Box no. 478, CEP 69060-001, Manaus-AM, Brazil
2 Instituto Federal do Amazonas-Campus Manaus Zona Leste, Avenida Cosme Ferreira, 8045-São José Operário, CEP: 69083-000, Manaus–AM, Brazil
Corresponding author Email:
International Journal of Aquaculture, 2017, Vol. 7, No.13 doi:
Received: 17 Jul., 2017
Accepted: 08 Aug., 2017
Published: 18 Aug., 2017
Copyright © 2017
Keshavanath et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Keshavanath P., Leao da Fonseca F.A., Affonso E.G., Nobre A.D., and Jeffson, N.P., 2017, Periphyton growth on three bio-substrates and its influence on the
performance of Jaraqui (
Semaprochilodus insignis
), International Journal of Aquaculture, 7(13): 86-93 (doi:
Abstract
Two experiments were conducted using plant substrates viz. bamboo (
Bambusa vulgaris
), ambay (
Cecropia pachystachya
)
and leucaena (
Leucaena leucocephala
) without and with fish to evaluate their suitability for periphyton development, and influence
on water quality and growth performance of jaraqui (
Semaprochilodus insignis
). In the first experiment of 45 days, carried out with
only the substrates, periphyton growth and water quality were assessed, while in the second experiment of 120 days fish growth was
monitored, in addition to periphyton development and water quality. The best growth of periphyton was observed on bamboo,
followed by ambay and leucaena. Bamboo grown periphyton had the highest chloropyll-a (39.59 µg/cm
2
) and protein (24.42%)
content. All the water quality parameters monitored were within the limits suitable for aquaculture. Fish of av. length 6.5±0.15 cm
and av. wt. 5.83
±
0.23 g stocked at a density of 1 per m
2
attained the best final av. length of 11.23±0.69 cm and av. wt. of 34.34±2.05
g in bamboo installed tanks, indicating its superiority as a substrate. Jaraqui growth was higher by 76.65, 53.55 and 25.41% in
bamboo, ambay and leucaena treatments over the control with no substrate.
Keywords
Aquaculture; Substrate; Jaraqui; Growth; Water quality
1 Introduction
Natural food is a valuable source of proteins, free amino acids and oligopeptides, fat and fatty acids and vitamins
that are essential substances for growth and development of fish (Kibria et al., 1997). Its enhancement in
fish/prawn culture ponds is effected through fertilization, substrate introduction or biofloc technology.
Biofilm/periphyton-based fish culture offers a new direction, especially since periphyton is effectively utilized by
many fish species which thrive low in the food chain (Van Dam et al., 2002). In recent years, periphyton-based
fish culture is developing as an alternative to systems with low input supplemental feeding, due to the high cost of
artificial diets. It results in increased fish/prawn production (Mridula et al., 2005; Jana et al., 2006; Garg et al.,
2007; Asaduzzaman et al., 2010, Keshavanath et al., 2015; Bharti et al., 2016; Shilta et al., 2016; Tortolero et al.,
2016; Kumar et al., 2017), simultaneously addressing environmental concerns through effective recycling of
nutrients from the aquatic system. Higher fish yield from such systems is enabled by the nutritional contribution
of periphyton growing on the substrates and also better survival since substrates act as shelters for fish. Actively
photosynthesizing population of periphyton increases pH and oxygen in water, enhancing water quality.
Furthermore, periphyton also traps particulate material from the water column (Dodds, 2003). Results reported on
organic tilapia production by Milstein et al. (2008, 2013) point towards periphyton-based aquaculture as an
appropriate technology for reduction in production cost.
In studies aimed at determining the efficiency of substrate type on the production of periphyton for aquaculture,
both biodegradable substrates and non-biodegradable substrates have been tested, employing several fish/prawn
species. Biodegradable substrates are considered to be better suited for periphyton growth because of the high C:N
ratio. Herbivorous species such as rohu (
Labeo rohita
), fimbriatus (
Labeo fimbriatus
), mahseer (
Tor khudree
) and
tilapia (
Sarotherodon niloticus
) are more suitable for exploiting periphyton (Azim et al., 2001; Keshavanath et al.,
2002; Uddin et al., 2009) due to their feeding habit. Even the African catfish,
Clarias gareipinus
has been shown
