Effect of biofilm on water quality and growth of Etroplus suratensis (Bloch, 1790)

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to compare the efficiency of biofilm production in natural and artificial substrates and to study their effect on water quality and growth of Etroplus suratensis. Four different substrates were used for biofilm formation: paddy straw (T1), sugarcane bagasse (T2), polyvinylchloride (PVC) pipe (T3) and plastic sheet (T4). The experiment was carried out in mud-bottomed fibre-reinforced plastic tanks (300 L) in triplicates. About 3000 cm 2 surface area (600 g) of each substrate was suspended in water supplemented with fertilizers. Only cow dung and urea were applied in control tanks. The tanks were stocked with 25 fishes with average weight of 9.1 ± 0.22 g. The overall mean value of heterotrophic bacteria in substrate was found higher in straw followed by bagasse, plastic and PVC. The dominant genera of bacteria in the substrate were Bacillus, Pseudomonas and Micrococcus in that order of preponderance. The mean phytoplankton and zooplankton density on the substrates were higher in bagasse followed by straw, plastic and PVC. The biofilm developed on the substrate significantly reduced the ammonia nitrogen and nitrite-nitrogen content of water. The growth of fishes was significantly (P \ 0.05) higher in substrate-based treatments than that in the control with better results in bagasse followed by straw, plastic and PVC. The conclusions of the present study are that biofilm produced on natural substrates, especially on bagasse, enhanced growth of E. suratensis and reduced the necessity of water exchange during the culture, which certainly decreases the cost of Etroplus production.

Periphyton Growth on Three Bio-substrates and Its Influence on the Performance of Jaraqui (<i>Semaprochilodus insignis</i>)

“…In recent years, periphyton-based fish culture is developing as an alternative to systems with low input supplemental feeding, due to the high cost of artificial diets. It results in increased fish/prawn production (Mridula et al, 2005;Jana et al, 2006;Garg et al, 2007;Asaduzzaman et al, 2010, Keshavanath et al, 2015Bharti et al, 2016;Shilta et al, 2016;Tortolero et al, 2016;Kumar et al, 2017), simultaneously addressing environmental concerns through effective recycling of nutrients from the aquatic system. Higher fish yield from such systems is enabled by the nutritional contribution of periphyton growing on the substrates and also better survival since substrates act as shelters for fish.…”

Effect of stocking density on growth performance, plankton abundance, body composition and haematological parameters of Etroplus suratensis (Bloch, 1790)

“…All tanks were filled with 300 L brackish water having approximate 5 PSU salinity with uniform continuous aeration, and only biofilm production tanks fertilized with cow dung and urea at 3000 kg and 150 kg ha −1, respectively (Ramesh et al, 1999). Sugarcane bagasse was selected as a substrate since it was found more suitable in the pearlspot biofilm‐based culture system (Shilta et al, 2016). Fresh bagasse was procured from local sugarcane juice vending shops and soaked in water for two days to eliminate the residual sugar present.…”

“…A microbial biofilm is composed of the colonization of diverse groups of micro‐ and planktonic organisms such as bacteria, protozoa, fungi and algae. Biofilms are found to improve water quality parameters and alleviate harmful effects of the overloaded population (Arnold et al, 2009; Azim et al, 2003; Krishnani et al, 2013; Krishnani et al, 2009; Krishnani & Kathiravan, 2010; Krishnani, Parimala, Gupta, Azad, et al, 2006; Krishnani et al, 2006; Shilta et al, 2016); biofilm acts as a natural planktonic food source for reared organisms (Langis et al, 1988) and augment immunity of aquatic animal against pathogens (Anand et al, 2015; Zhang et al, 2010).…”

Bacterial communities and predicted nitrogen metabolism of heterotrophic‐ and probiotic‐based biofilms used for super‐intensive indoor shrimp culture

“…Biofilms used for aquaculture have shown positive effects on the production performance, water quality, economic profitability, and, therefore, sustainability (Lara et al., 2017; Shilta et al., 2016). However, there is scarce information about the taxonomic profile of the microbial communities thriving in these culture systems and even less information about their metabolic functions.…”

“…Biofilms used for aquaculture have shown positive effects on the production performance, water quality, economic profitability, and, therefore, sustainability (Lara et al, 2017;Shilta et al, 2016).…”