TRD: Institute for animal production: Aquaculture: FUTURE RESEARCH
Comparison of tilapia strains in the Western Cape:
The identification of relatively fast growing individuals is an important consideration in genetic selection programs in aquaculture management. As it is known that there is a serious disadvantage for tilapia species as the male grows faster than a female, then supermale breeding will be investigated in order to solve this problem.Farming with trout is more established in Western Cape and grow best in winter. However, tilapia has a poor growth rate and poor feed conversion ratio in winter because it is a warm water species. The Western Cape is too cold in winter and it has been suggested that tilapia species can be suitable candidates for the use by aquaculture farmers to link with trout farming. There is a theory that there is a suitable strain of tilapia that tolerates coldness in the Western Cape, which will also be investigated to confirm or disprove the theory.
Objective
Evaluate the growth performance, survival and feed conversion ratio of different strains of tilapia.
Aquaculture feed nutrition and management for use by small-scale and commercial farmers of Western Cape Province
1. Feeding frequency and feeding rate
Feeding practices can have significant effects on production cost and the profitability on fish farms. Most fish farmers feed fish to satiety and it is very difficult to determine the critical point at which fish are satiated, so fish are frequently overfed. Knowing proper feeding frequency and amount of feed for cultured fish is important not only in terms of fish growth, but also for economic and environmental reasons: decreases economic profitability, nutritional loss, minimizing feed wastage and also water pollution.
Objective:
To investigate the optimum feeding rate and feeding frequency which would promote maximum growth rate with efficient food conversion ratio.
2. Different protein and energy level
Nutrients should be balanced so that the fish will have enough essential nutrients for optimum growth when energy needs are satisfied. Therefore, all types of formulated fish fields must satisfy the nutritional requirements of the cultured species in terms of protein and energy.
Objective:
To investigate the influence of dietary protein and energy level on the growth, feed utilization and body composition.
3. Alternative plant protein sources for more economic tilapia feed
The major challenge facing tilapia nutritionists in developing countries is the development of commercial, cost effective tilapia feeds using locally available, cheap and unconventional resources. Nutrition is the most expensive component in the intensive aquaculture industry, where it represents over 50% of operating costs. Moreover, protein itself represents about 50% of feed cost in intensive culture. Therefore, the selection of proper quantity and quality of dietary protein is a necessary tool for successful tilapia culture practices.
Objective
To determine economic evaluation of protein source for tilapia feed.
Integrated aquaculture
1. Aquaponics: - integration of aquaculture with hydroponics.
This trial will run in association with Glen Taylor at Saasveld.
Another reason why opportunities for aquaculture is often overlooked is due to the fact that South Africa is scares in water because historically we can be considered a low rainfall country. These lead to the unsustainable approach for optimization of water resource utilization that eventually results in water as a limiting factor in commercial fish production. Therefore, there is a need for a drastic change in paradigm to shift to sustainable aquaculture practices using newer technologies that will optimize the use of water. One approach would be to integrate the aquaculture system with other agricultural based industries, because aquaculture is not a consumer of water but only a user thereof. Aquaponics, which integrates hydroponics with aquaculture, is a good example of a successful integration.
Objective:
To investigate the most efficient application of integration of aquaculture with agriculture by utilizing nutrient rich water discharged from recirculating system to irrigate vegetables crops.
2. Modeling aquaculture system
Aquaculture in South Africa is behind due to the fact that they focused traditionally only on agriculture and livestock. Therefore, Integrated aquaculture can be implemented in such a way of integrating familiar food such as vegetables, poultry, pig, etc. The principle of integrating aquaculture with agriculture is to optimize the utilization of nutrients in the whole system and to minimize or eliminate the production of waste, thereby reducing production cost and pollution.
Objective:
To investigate the integration of aquaculture –agriculture food production systems largely aimed at rural community in the Western Cape.
Links
1. www.aasa-aqua.co.za: Aquaculture Association of South Africa website2. www.ai-sa.org.za: Aquaculture Institute of South Africa website.
2. Read or Download Site selection and culture management
3. Guideline for application to farm aquaculture
4. Download: Aquaculture Distance Education Learning
