EFFECT OF AEROBIC MICROBIAL FLOC ON PROXIMATE COMPOSITION AND GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF GIFT TILAPIA IN NURSERY CULTURE SYSTEM
The aquaculture is one of the protein supply and profit based industry to fulfil the human nutrition demand and improve their livelihood. The animal protein price is varies according to their production cost and demand but the GIFT tilapia is only the fish would provide high nutrition with low cost. The nutrient profile of GIFT tilapia is mainly depends on plankton diversity (natural food) and supplement feed (Artificial diet) which is responsible for growth and survival of fish. The aerobic microbial floc (AMF) act as good nutrition by nutrient recycling process which enhance the growth performance of GIFT tilapia and reduce the feed cost. The present study was conducted to find out the proximate composition and fatty acid profile of GIFT tilapia.
Thirty days experiment was carried out in outdoor lined pond (10x10x1m) with microbial floc as treatment (AMF) and without microbial floc (Non-AMF) as control in duplicate. The aspirator aerator and fertilizers were used to develop the microbial floc. GIFT tilapia seed (0.2054 0.02 g/fry) were stocked at 50 numbers /m2 in treatment and control.
The group of algae and planktonic group was observed under binocular digital microscope at 10 days interval. On six days interval basis the growth performance was measured by using standard formulas and proximate composition with fatty acid profile of GIFT tilapia was analyzed by using standard protocol (AOAC, 1995).
The diatom (Navicula and Nitzschia sp) and rotifer (Branchinous and Lecane sp) groups were significantly (P<0.005) higher in AMF compared to non-AMF system. The final average body weight was significantly higher in AMF fed fish compared to non-AMF fed fishes. The proximate composition of GIFT tilapia were given in table 1. The linoleic (27.72%) and eicosapentaenoic acid (1.81%) was higher in AMF fed fish. This study concluded the nutrient profile of GIFT tilapia which indicated the higher protein content present in GIFT tilapia.
