ASSESSMENT OF APPLICATION TECHNOLOGY “BIOFLOC ” ON THE PRODUCTION OF TILAPIA FISH “OREOCHROMIS NILOTICUS” IN THE EASTERN PROVINCE OF SAUDI ARABIA

Mostafa Abdel Mohsen El Gammal 1, 2; Mohammed Nageeb1 and Waleed Alshwared 1

1Fisheries Research Centre, Eastern Province, Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

2Centre laboratory for Aquaculture Research (CLAR), Agriculture Research Centre (ARC), Ministry of Agriculture Egypt.

Received 19 /1 /2021

Accepted 21 /2 /2021

ABSTRACT

The shortage of freshwater in many places of the world and especially in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has made us go to water-saving and environmentally friendly aquaculture systems as Biofloc. This investigation was done to assess the utilization of Biofloc technology to production tilapia fish; Oreochromis niloticus in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. The experiment was divided to two groups of concrete ponds each group was two replicate ponds 120 m3 capacity (12m x10m x1m). The first group was traditional culture; water exchange/day about 405m3/day/pond and the second group was Biofloc application without exchange water. All ponds filled with fresh groundwater and stocked by healthy mixed-sex Nile tilapia fry, Oreochromis niloticus, 50 fry/m3 the total a verage weight 4.79gm. The time of the experimental was continue to 180 days. The outcomes show that the water quality of Biofloc was suitable for fish production and microorganisms. The water temperature reduced about 2 degrees in Biofloc than traditional. The fish production as average growth rate individual was higher in Biofloc (258.61±4.01gm) than traditional (214.15±4.04gm). The feed conversion ratio (FCR) was decreased significantly in Biofloc application (1.1±0.01than traditional treatment (2.2±0.01) in harvest samples. The total production of fish was more significant in Biofloc (1626±10.5 -kg)/ pond than traditional treatment (1198±11.5 kg) pond. The survival rate % was recorded as 99.05 % in Biofloc but 93.25 % in traditional. The production of one-kilogram fish tilapia in Biofloc was used water 0.16 m3 and 10.4m3 in the traditional system, i.e. the Biofloc production application may be saved 65 times of water used for production one kilogram of fish.

Keywords:
Biofloc, Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus and water quality.