Keshavanath P.¹ , Leao da Fonseca F.A.² , Affonso E.G.¹ , Nobre A.D.¹ , Jeffson N.P.¹

1 Aquaculture Division, National Institute of Research in the Amazon, Post Box no. 478, CEP 69060-001, Manaus-AM, Brazil
2 Instituto Federal do Amazonas-Campus Manaus Zona Leste, Avenida Cosme Ferreira, 8045-São José Operário, CEP: 69083-000, Manaus–AM, Brazil
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Aquaculture, 2017, Vol. 7, No. 13   doi: 10.5376/ija.2017.07.0013
Received: 17 Jul., 2017    Accepted: 08 Aug., 2017    Published: 18 Aug., 2017

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Keshavanath P., Leao da Fonseca F.A., Affonso E.G., Nobre A.D., and Jeffson, N.P., 2017, Periphyton growth on three bio-substrates and its influence on the performance of Jaraqui (Semaprochilodus insignis), International Journal of Aquaculture, 7(13): 86-93 (doi: 10.5376/ija.2017.07.0013)

Two experiments were conducted using plant substrates viz. bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris), ambay (Cecropia pachystachya) and leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala) without and with fish to evaluate their suitability for periphyton development, and influence on water quality and growth performance of jaraqui (Semaprochilodus insignis). In the first experiment of 45 days, carried out with only the substrates, periphyton growth and water quality were assessed, while in the second experiment of 120 days fish growth was monitored, in addition to periphyton development and water quality. The best growth of periphyton was observed on bamboo, followed by ambay and leucaena. Bamboo grown periphyton had the highest chloropyll-a (39.59 µg/cm²) and protein (24.42%) content. All the water quality parameters monitored were within the limits suitable for aquaculture. Fish of av. length 6.5±0.15 cm and av. wt. 5.83±0.23 g stocked at a density of 1 per m² attained the best final av. length of 11.23±0.69 cm and av. wt. of 34.34±2.05 g in bamboo installed tanks, indicating its superiority as a substrate. Jaraqui growth was higher by 76.65, 53.55 and 25.41% in bamboo, ambay and leucaena treatments over the control with no substrate.

Aquaculture; Substrate; Jaraqui; Growth; Water quality