Aquaculture Africa 2024

November 19 - 22, 2024

Hammamet, Tunisia

BIO-TECHNICAL ASSESSMENTS OF AFRICAN CATFISH Clarias gariepinus (BURCHELL, 1822) AND FOUR INDIGENOUS LEAFY VEGETABLES RAISED IN A MULTILOOP PYRAMID AQUAPONICS SYSTEM

A. O. Tanimowo1, J. O.  Ed-Idoko2*, Umma S.B.3  F. I. Abidang4, and I. M. Umar5

 

1Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture Technology, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State.

2Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, University of Agriculture Makurdi, Benue State.

3Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Federal University Wukari, Taraba State Nigeria.

4Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Maiduguri, Borno State

5Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Nasarawa State University, Lafia, Nasarawa State

 

Correspondence email: edidoko.john@gmail.com

Phone Numbers: +2348026766569; +2348061216970

 



This study was carried out to assess the bio-technical performance of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus), and four leafy indigenous vegetables namely Spinach (Basella alba), Fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalis), Amaranthus (Amaranthus spp), and Bologi (Solanecio biafrae) raised in a Multi-loop pyramid aquaponics system. The experiment was carried out at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture Technology where one hundred and fifty African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) post juvenile (1274.2g) were stocked in the aquaponics system and fed with commercial fish feed for 56days. Fish biological performance during the experiment was measured based on growth performance and nutrient utilization. The physicochemical parameters of the water used for the experiment was determined. The yield parameters of the leafy vegetable was measured 4 weeks after seed germination and subsequent 2 weeks. Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) was used for analysis,while the inferential statistics was done using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare the growth performance of the four indigenous leafy vegetables at 95% level of confidence and 0.05 level of significance. The study found that the water quality, as well as the fish performance in the system were all within the recommended limits and appreciable performance respectively. The ANOVA result showed a statistically significant difference among the four indigenous leafy vegetables in their number of leaves to vine length ratio (F (3, 8) = 185.246, p<.05) as well as a statistically significant difference in their growth performance (F (3,8) = 9.195, p<.05). Furthermore, the Post hoc testing showed the multiple comparisons of the number of leaves to vine length ratio, and growth performance of the four indigenous leafy vegetables indicated that Bologi (Solanecio biafrae) has the highest number of leaves to vine length ratio when compared to the three other indigenous leafy vegetables used in the experiment (P<0.05) and Fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalis) have the best growth performance when compared to the three other indigenous leafy vegetables used in the experiment (P<0.05).The study concluded that Bologi and Fluted pumpkins has a better production performance and growth performance in aquaponic system thus, integration of indigenous vegetable such as Bologi and Fluted Pumpkin in aquaponics system has the potential of adding more to the benefits of the system not only in the area of pollution control, but also in terms of productivity.