Monitoring of Water Quality and Zooplankton Community in Presence of Different Dietary Levels of Commercial Wood Charcoal of Red Tilapia

Ahmed M.M. Heneash, Ahmed E. A

Abstract

The objective of this study assess the effects of physico-chemical parameters and dietary active commercial wood charcoal (CWC) levels on the zooplankton standing crop in addition to growth and biochemical of red tilapias in fifteen fish cement ponds for period an eight weeks feeding trial during 2019. The results declared that, water temperature, pH and salinity didn´t show any major differences among wood charcoal treatments when measured inside fish ponds, while dissolved oxygen, ammonia, moisture, ash and total lipid are significantly (P<0.05) enhancement affected by the increment in (CWC) levels. Mean range of physico-chemical factors were: temperature 28.1°C (Week 7) to 30.9°C (Week 0), salinty 8.4 ppt (Week 3) to 5 ppt (Week 6 & 7), pH 8.4 (Week 4) and 9 (Week 3), Dissolved oxygen 4.44 mg/l (Week 4) to 7.80 mg/l (Week 0) and ammonia 0.01-00.04 μg/l (Week 3) to 0.13 μg/l (Week 4). Biochemical and antioxidant parameters as moisture, ash and total lipid have significant differences (P >0.05) could be detected among fish groups that received dietary charcoal in feeds. Furthermore, the effect of heavy metals decrease with increase of activated carbon at fed fish, leading to protect cultured fish. Soon after the juvenile red tilapias stocking, rotifers, Cladocera and rare groups replaced Copepoda, which constituted more than 80% of total zooplankton community. Diversity Index classified the pond water as being among moderately and heavily polluted. The results displayed that 30-40 g/kg dietary CWC in T3 and T4 are a suitable level to improve water quality parameter of the fish farm and improve growth percentage (S%) of red tilapia with percentage higher than 95%.

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