Culture of Melanochromis sp. and Lycopersicon esculentum var. Cerasifonne in a combined system of Biofloc and aquaponics

Abstract

The aim of this study was to make an aquaponic production system with the ornamental fish Melanochrimis sp. and tomato cherry, in a Biofloc system with different carbon sources. For fish and plants culture it was made a floating root system in Rotoplas ® water tanks of 250 L capacity, which were filled with 125 L of water and 100 juvenile fish. For each tank a 100 cm diameter Styrofoam plate was placed and 21 holes of 2” diameter were drilled to place a plastic basket with a cherry tomato plant. The survival in the four experimental treatments, was above 90%. Coffee and moringa treatments where the ones that presented higher gain values, with coffee the highest length gains in fish and plants were obtained with 11.61 and 54.67 cm, respectively. While moringa obtained the highest gain values for width and weight in fish with 2.16 cm and 7.13 g, respectively. With this, it can be proved that the viability of aquaponic systems at small scale, using a Biofloc system that allows to reduce the negative impact that aquaculture activity has on the environment.