Aquaculture America 2024

February 18 - 21, 2024

San Antonio, Texas

QUANTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF TILAPIA WASTE COLLECTION IN FLOATING IN-POND RACEWAYS WITH O. niloticus

Esau Arana*, Joshimar Menjivar, Phillip Kemp

aranaes@auburn.edu

 



In aquaculture in general rising cage culture has been the most economical, low investment and profitable out of any aquaculture technology ever.  However, this highly adaptable technology do not came without its own problems.  As aquaculture increase production in lake and reservoirs, especially in warm climates around the world, pollution of aquatic environment become more and more visible.  Many countries are looking for alternatives for the solution or at least a contribution to solve this problem. Others countries are taking more drastic measurement by cutting fish producer permits, and lower the number of cages allowed on those waters.  Floating IPRS could be a significant contributor to the problem by keeping production, jobs in the industry and extract fish fecal material off the aquatic environment. This study made an effort to quantify the amount of fecal material from tilapia nilotica culture in floating IPRS.  Eight experimental units floating IPRS (FIPRS) of 14.3 m³ each, installed in a pond of 0.1868 Ha. with a total of 6,073 m³, stocked with tilapia nilotica at 1928 fish per cell at 133 fish/m³ average weight of 42 grams. Four units designated for commercial diet A and four for diet B. Tilapia grow diet A=0.421.5 kg and diet B=0.371 kg (t-student p=0.008).  Condition Factor K: diet A=2.16 and B=2.14 (p=0.44) indicating low feed intake. Correlation between feed intake and weigh of dry fecal material was done by regression analysis: diet A: R=0.33, r²=0.11, p=0.27; and diet B: R=0.42, r²=0.18, p=0.15.  Both diets indicate a medium strength correlation and low Coefficient dependence between feed given and dry fecal matter, and no statistical significance.  On the characterization of tilapia fecal material. Student t-test was performed on total Nitrogen, C/N Ratio, Phosphorus, Potash and finally Sodium comparing those elements for the two study diets, none of them show any statistical significance at level of p = 0.05 in either overall average or from day 1 to day 77 fed with 38% CP and after day 77, fed with 32% CP. Zamorano University Soil Laboratory report on Macro and Micro-nutrients (N, P, K, Fe, Mg, Mn, Ca and Na and others no reported here) indicate far higher levels as recommended for most agriculture row crop.  Especial consideration should be taken on high level of Sodium. Use of tilapia waste as agriculture fertilizer should be taken diluted, or mix with a filler before use, otherwise it could cause serious damage to row crop.