Laboratory investigation of daily food intake and gut evacuation in larvae of African catfish Clarias gariepinus under different feeding conditions

Abstract Temporary accumulation of ascorbic acid 2-sulfate (AAS) was measured to estimate food intake and gut evacuation in larvae of African catfish. Fish larvae were fed decapsulated cysts of Artemia containing AAS. In a first experiment it was found that no biosynthesis of AAS occurs in the larvae of this species. In a second experiment, the gut contents of the fish larvae fed were calculated as they changed during development. In a third experiment, the gut evacuation rate of fish larvae was determined during continuous and discontinuous feeding regimes in the first five days after the start of exogenous feeding. Food consumption by catfish larvae increased from 46.5% of their body dry weight (BDW) on day 1 after the start of exogenous feeding to 53.8% BDW on day 3. Thereafter, food consumption decreased to 27.8% BDW on day 5. A similar pattern was observed for gut evacuation, which increased during the first days of exogenous feeding and decreased as fish growth continued. The rate of gut evacuation in a continuous feeding regime was significantly higher (P <0.05) than that under discontinuous feeding. On day 1 post-hatch and 7 h after first food ingestion the fish larvae evacuated 87% of the food in continuous feeding compared with 43% under discontinuous feeding. It was found that gut emptying differs during larval development. Under continuous feeding, on days 1 and 3 post-hatch and 11 h after the first meal 90% of the food was evacuated compared with 71% evacuated on day 5. The advantages and limitations of the AAS method for estimation of food consumption by fish larvae are discussed

Effect of dietary carbohydrate to lipid ratio on performance of Nile tilapia and enhancement of natural food in pond aquaculture

This study tested the effect of two diets differing in carbohydrate to lipid (CHO:LIP) ratio (4.7 vs. 19.5 g/g) on the contribution of natural food and the total fish production in tilapia ponds. Eight ponds, each divided into three equally sized compartments, were assigned to one of the two diets, which differed in CHO:LIP ratio but had the same digestible protein to digestible energy (DP:DE) ratio (15.5 and 15.6 g/MJ). Ponds were fed equal amounts of crude protein. Three feeding levels (no, low and high) were nested in each pond in a split plot design. Average body weight of fish at stocking was 90 g, and the duration of the experiment was 42 days. Increasing the CHO:LIP ratio had no impact on tilapia production. However, the feeding level influenced both biomass gain, specific growth rate and survival. The apparent digestibility coefficient (ADC) for fat and carbohydrate was influenced by dietary CHO:LIP ratio but ADC for energy was unaffected. Proximate analysis of fish body composition showed no effect of diet except for levels of ash. Diet had no effect on the organic matter composition of the faeces, and the contribution of natural food to fish nitrogen gain. Therefore, we postulate that changing the dietary non-protein energy source from lipid to carbohydrate does not have any impact on tilapia culture in semi-intensive ponds.</p

Ideotyping integrated aquaculture systems to balance soil nutrients

Due to growing land scarcity and lack of nutrient inputs, African farmers switched from shifting cultivation to continuous cropping and extended crop area by bringing fragile lands such as river banks and hill slopes into production. This accelerated soil fertility decline caused by erosion, harvesting and insufficient nutrient replenishment. We explored the feasibility to reduce nutrient depletion by increasing nutrient utilization efficiencies, while diversifying and increasing food production through the development of integrated aquaculture – agriculture (IAA). Considering the climatic conditions prevailing in Kenyan highlands, aquaculture production scenarios were ideotyped per agro-ecological zone. These aquaculture production scenarios were integrated into existing NUTrient MONitoring (NUTMON) farm survey data for the area. The nutrient balances and flows of the resulting IAA-systems were compared to present land use. The effects of IAA development on nutrient depletion and total food production were evaluated. With the development of IAA systems, nutrient depletion rates dropped by 23–35%, agricultural production increased by 2–26% and overall farm food production increased by 22–70%. The study demonstrates that from a bio-physical point of view, the development of IAA-systems in Africa is technically possible and could raise soil fertility and total farm production. Further studies that evaluate the economic feasibility and impacts on the livelihood of farming households are recommended

Removal of ammonium and nitrate in recirculating aquaculture systems by the epiphyte Stigeoclonium nanum immobilized in alginate beads

Incorporation of microalgae in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) would absorb the inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus, thus potentially contributing to water purification.Immobilization or entrapment of microalgal cells in spherical gels is a potential method to incor- porate microalgae in the RAS. Filamentous microalgae are presumed to suit the immobilization technique because the gels can serve as substrates for the microalgae to attach. In the first experiment of this study, growth and nitrogen uptake of Stigeoclonium nanum, a filamentous micro-alga, was compared when cultured using an immobilization technique or in a normal suspension.In the second experiment, immobilized S. nanum was cultured in 4 media with different total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) and nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) concentrations. The results showed a significantly higher algal growth and TAN removal by S.nanum immobilized in alginate than for S.nanum in free suspension culture. When both TAN and NO3-N were added to the culture medium, the uptake of TAN by immobilized S.nanum was significantly more efficient than NO3-N uptake.Our results indicated that S.nanum was able to grow immobilized in a medium, exhibiting a higher growth and TAN uptake than when the algae were in free suspension. S.nanum preferred ammonium over nitrate, which is suitable for RAS that require removal of the total ammonia which is produced by fish and by organic decomposition in the system

Integration of algae to improve nitrogenous waste management in recirculating aquaculture systems: a review

This review investigates the performance and the feasibility of the integration of an algal reactor in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). The number of studies related to this topic is limited, despite the apparent benefit of algae that can assimilate part of the inorganic waste in RAS. We identified two major challenges related to algal integration in RAS: first, the practical feasibility for improving nitrogen removal performance by algae in RAS; second, the economic feasibility of integrating an algal reactor in RAS. The main factors that determine high algal nitrogen removal rates are light and hydraulic retention time (HRT). Besides these factors, nitrogen-loading rates and RAS configuration could be important to ensure algal performance in nitrogen removal. Since nitrogen removal rate by algae is determined by HRT, this will affect the size (area or volume) of the algal reactor due to the time required for nutrient uptake by algae and large surface area needed to capture enough light. Constraints related to design, space, light capture, and reactor management could incur additional cost for aquaculture production. However, the increased purification of RAS wastewater could reduce the cost of water discharge in places where this is subject to levees. We believe that an improved understanding of how to manage the algal reactor and technological advancement of culturing algae, such as improved algal reactor design and low-cost artificial light, will increase the practical and economic feasibility of algal integration in RAS, thus improving the potential of mass cultivation of algae in RAS

Constraints on Energy Intake in Fish: The Link between Diet Composition, Energy Metabolism, and Energy Intake in Rainbow Trout

The hypothesis was tested that fish fed to satiation with iso-energetic diets differing in macronutrient composition will have different digestible energy intakes (DEI) but similar total heat production. Four iso-energetic diets (2×2 factorial design) were formulated having a contrast in i) the ratio of protein to energy (P/E): high (HP/E) vs. low (LP/E) and ii) the type of non-protein energy (NPE) source: fat vs. carbohydrate which were iso-energetically exchanged. Triplicate groups (35 fish/tank) of rainbow trout were hand-fed each diet twice daily to satiation for 6 weeks under non-limiting water oxygen conditions. Feed intake (FI), DEI (kJ kg−0.8 d−1) and growth (g kg−0.8 d−1) of trout were affected by the interaction between P/E ratio and NPE source of the diet (P<0.05). Regardless of dietary P/E ratio, the inclusion of carbohydrate compared to fat as main NPE source reduced DEI and growth of trout by ∼20%. The diet-induced differences in FI and DEI show that trout did not compensate for the dietary differences in digestible energy or digestible protein contents. Further, changes in body fat store and plasma glucose did not seem to exert a homeostatic feedback control on DEI. Independent of the diet composition, heat production of trout did not differ (P>0.05). Our data suggest that the control of DEI in trout might be a function of heat production, which in turn might reflect a physiological limit related with oxidative metabolism