engInt. J. of Aquatic Science2008-80192008-80192017-07-0182697770741Nutritional importance for aquaculture and ecological function of microorganisms that make up Biofloc, a reviewDaniel Becerril-Cortés1María del Carmen Monroy-Dosta2Mauricio Gustavo Coelho-Emerenciano3Germán Castro-Mejía4Kathia Cienfuegos-Martínez5Ramón de Lara-Andrade6<span>The objective of this review is to provide an overview of the nutritional importance and ecological function of microorganisms in Biofloc systems. For the elaboration of this review different databases were consulted, principally, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Scielo. First, it is described the interactions between bacteria and phytoplankton in Biofloc, which are important for maintenance of water quality, because they are involved in transformation of organic matter and a better removal of contaminant residues such as nitrogenous compounds. Also, these organisms are important for aquatic ecosystems because they are an essential component of trophic nets in activity and biomass quantity, contributing to regeneration of nutrients and interacting with many organisms serving as base of food chain. Subsequently, mention is made of relevance of zooplankton that develops in Biofloc culture systems, because they represent a key role in animal’s nutrition in culture and have proven benefits in growth rates, in food conversion factor and reduction in costs associated to commercial food.</span>http://www.journal-aquaticscience.com/article_70741_513b984749c03250942f865e5eb86f6a.pdfHeterotrophic bacteriaphytoplanktonaquaculture nutritionzooplanktonengInt. J. of Aquatic Science2008-80192008-80192017-07-0182788270730The effect of house cricket (Acheta domesticus) meal on growth performance of red hybrid tilapia (Oreochromis sp.)Seong Wei Lee1Huan Ching Tey2Wee Wendy3Mohamed Wan Zahari4<span>In the present study, the effect of house cricket, <em>Acheta domesticus</em> meal on the growth performance of red hybrid tilapia, <em>Oreochromis</em> sp. was evaluated. There were five treatments with different combination of house cricket and rice bran, namely T1 (60% of <em>A. domesticus</em> + 40% rice bran), T2 (70% of <em>A. domesticus </em>+ 30% rice bran), T3 (80% of <em>A. domesticus </em>+ 20% rice bran), T4 (90% of <em>A. domesticus </em>+ 10% rice bran) and T5 (100% of <em>A. domesticus</em>), each with three replicates. The control group of fish was fed with commercial pellet. The feeding trial was carried out for four weeks and the liver of the fish from each treatment was subjected to histology study in order to evaluate the toxicity level of house cricket against fish that received treatment. The results of the present study showed that there was significantly difference (p < 0.05) among the treatment diets towards the survival and growth rate of red hybrid tilapia, where Treatment T1 showed the best result in term of survival and growth rate. However, histology study revealed that the fish liver suffered from abnormal fatty changes as the concentration of <em>A. domesticus</em> increased in treatment diets.</span>http://www.journal-aquaticscience.com/article_70730_8a54b492509a1a1602b71000bc68f8ff.pdfred hybrid tilapiaOreochromis sphouse cricketinsect mealrice brangrowth ratehistologyengInt. J. of Aquatic Science2008-80192008-80192017-07-0182839070734Composition and abundance of macro-benthic invertebrates in Owena reservoir, Ondo State, NigeriaOlamide Olaronke Olawusi-Peters1<span>Owena reservoir was established for the supply of portable water, fisheries exploitation, irrigation of agricultural lands and hydro-electricity. These activities subject the reservoir to environmental degradation which will reflect on the quality of water, sediment and organisms. This necessitates the study since abundance, diversity, biomass and composition of the benthic invertebrates can be used as indicators of changing environmental conditions. Hence, on monthly basis (February–April, 2013), macro-benthic invertebrates were collected from Owena reservoir using Van veen grab. Also, some physico-chemical parameters were determined. Five species of macro-benthic invertebrates were recorded, which include <em>Chironomus </em>larva (24), <em>Melanoides tuberculata</em> (80), <em>Physa waterlotti</em> (6), <em>Bulinus globussus</em> (12) and <em>Lynmea natalensis</em> (6) belonging to two phyla; Arthropoda and Mollusca. The analysis of the physiochemical parameters showed that a negative relationship exists between temperature and dissolved oxygen (r<sup>2</sup>=-0.911). Also, <em>Melanoides tuberculata</em> and <em>Lynmea natalensis</em> have negative correlation with DO (r<sup>2</sup>=-0.836 and r<sup>2</sup>=-0.592 respectively) and Nitrate (r<sup>2</sup>=-0.896 and r<sup>2</sup>=-0.490 respectively). The presence and absence of some macro-benthic invertebrates in the study area is an indication of the impact of human activities on the reservoir; thereby requires a good management program in order to keep the relevance of the reservoir in its use for domestic purposes.</span>http://www.journal-aquaticscience.com/article_70734_d0ab6211b9036c513b30ed1c1d950d12.pdfMacrobenthic InvertebratesOwena ReservoirMelanoides tuberculataengInt. J. of Aquatic Science2008-80192008-80192017-07-0182919570731Elvers of tropical long-finned eel Anguilla sp. prefer white background in aquaria as determined behaviourallySara Joshua Mercylla1Kawamura Gunzo2Fui Fui Ching3Lim Leong Seng4Senoo Shigeharu5<span>In this study, given that the tropical long-finned eel <em>Anguilla</em> sp. has colour vision, we determined background colour preference of elvers of this eel in laboratory. The test aquaria covered with a pair of two-colour papers contained with a group of 10 elvers and the position of heads of elvers on each colour background was recorded 15 times for each colour pair. The background colours tested were white, black, yellow, red, green and blue. The frequencies of the head position on each colour of different pairs were analysed by the Thurstone’s law of comparative judgment for paired-preference test. The elvers showed a strong bias for white background, with no significant difference in the mean z-score between the other 5 colour backgrounds. Since no negative impact of white rearing tanks on growth and stress response of other fish species were detected in previous literatures, confinement of the tropical long-finned eel <em>Anguilla</em> sp. in white background was recommended.</span>http://www.journal-aquaticscience.com/article_70731_b8dcc865e21f8bc91f1d399cbc5ccfd1.pdftropical long-finned eelelverbackground colour preferencecolour visionengInt. J. of Aquatic Science2008-80192008-80192017-07-01829610670733Decomposition rates and nutrient Leaching efficacy of the Dominant Macrophytes in Lake Ziway, EthiopiaGirum Tamire1Seyoum Mengistou2Gezahegn Degefe3<span>Decomposition of macrophytes is an important process that facilitates nutrient and carbon cycle in aquatic ecosystems. The role of macrophytes decomposition in nutrient dynamics of a lake was studied in slightly alkaline tropical lake, Lake Ziway, using laboratory and field incubation experiment (litter bag technique) between January to October 2013. The objective of this study was to assess the role of macrophytes to nutrient cycle and organic matter accumulation in Lake Ziway. <em> Potamogeton schweinfurthii</em> decomposed faster (K= 0.0409 d<sup>-1</sup>) than other macrophytes while <em>Arundo donax</em> was the most resistant to decaying (K = 0.0073 d<sup>-1</sup>). Net increase in total nitrogen concentration was observed for the macrophytes’ litters during field decomposition experiments. Increase was highest (4.38 fold) for <em>Cyperus papyrus</em>. Phosphorous concentration decreased for all macrophyte litters, except <em>Cyperus articulatus. </em>The highest reduction was observed for <em>P.schweinfurthii</em> (82.6%). Laboratory incubation experiments were also done by incubating macrophyte litters with the lake water in bottles and an increment in soluble reactive phosphate concentration was observed at the end of the experiments except in two bottles, but the opposite trend was observed for nitrate in all bottles. The overall results of the experiments showed that most of the macrophytes decomposed faster and serve as net source of phosphorous, although the contribution of decomposition of these macrophytes to the change of water quality of the lake seems to be low. On the other hand, <em>A. donax</em> plays little role in the dynamics of major nutrients and may contribute to organic matter accumulation in the lake. Both laboratory and field experiments showed that all the macrophytes, except <em>C. articulatus, </em>served as net SRP to the lake system. In spite of higher decomposition rate of the macrophytes in the lake, the contribution of decomposition in changing the physico-chemical condition of the lake is still insignificant.</span>http://www.journal-aquaticscience.com/article_70733_d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e.pdfDecompositionLeachingMacrophyteZiwayengInt. J. of Aquatic Science2008-80192008-80192017-07-018210711270732Optimum light wavelength and light intensity for rearing juvenile African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus)Muhammad Firdaus Sallehudin1Nor Amira Yusoff2Nai Han Tan3Shahbudin Saad4Yukinori Mukai5<span>The present study examines the optimum light wavelength and intensity for rearing African catfish (<em>Clarias gariepinus</em>) juveniles. For this purpose, African catfish juveniles (average total length: 26.0 ± 5.0 mm) were reared (20 fish/30 L) under five light colours (white, blue, green, yellow, and red) with three light intensities (1.40, 0.014, and 0.0014 µmoles/m²/s) in triplicate for 14 days. The survival rates and specific growth rates (SGRs) were then calculated. The results of the present study showed that the survival rates of African catfish juveniles were high under all light conditions with no significant differences among light wavelengths or light intensities (P < 0.05). These findings indicate that the survival rates of African catfish juveniles were unaffected either by light wavelengths or by light intensities. However, there were significant differences among light wavelengths for the SGRs, with yellow light resulting in the highest SGR. As for the effect of light intensities on fish growth rates, the results were insignificant. Thus, yellow light is recommended for rearing African catfish juveniles.</span>http://www.journal-aquaticscience.com/article_70732_2e32302aed7db5fd7995bd25b3f3c195.pdfAfrican catfishClarias gariepinussurvival rategrowth ratelight intensitieslight wavelengthsengInt. J. of Aquatic Science2008-80192008-80192017-07-018211311970738Influence of light wavelength and intensity on the survival and somatic growth of the early larval stage of sutchi catfish Pangasianodon hypophthalmusNai Han Tan1Nor Amira Yusoff2Khairul Muttaqin Ismail3Muhammad Firdaus Sallehudin4Yukinori Mukai5<span>The present study examined the influence of various light wavelengths and intensities on the survival and somatic growth of sutchi catfish <em>Pangasianodon hypophthalmus</em> larvae during their most critical period. Two-day-old larvae (initial total length, TL<sub>i</sub> = 3 mm; initial body weight, BW<sub>i</sub> = 0.002 g) at a stocking density of 10 larvae per litre were reared in triplicate under five light wavelengths (white as a control, blue, green, yellow and red wavelengths) of four light intensities (1.40×10<sup>-3</sup>, 1.40×10<sup>-2</sup>, 1.40×10<sup>-1</sup> and 1.40 µmol/m²/s). The larvae showed a tendency towards higher survival rates (<em>SR</em>) and production index (<em>PI</em>) under longer light wavelengths (yellow and red wavelengths) and at a light intensity of 1.40×10<sup>-3</sup> µmol/m²/s. Furthermore, the larvae reared under red wavelength showed a tendency towards higher specific growth rates for both length and body weight (<em>SGR<sub>L</sub></em> and <em>SGR<sub>BW</sub></em>) than those reared under other light wavelengths. These findings provide fundamental information regarding the optimum light conditions for larval rearing of sutchi catfish, as well as providing insight about the adaptation of the larvae towards the environmental light in the wild.</span>http://www.journal-aquaticscience.com/article_70738_d7341f1483ca96b68b267e3ef8f9275a.pdfgrowthlight intensitylight wavelengthPangasianodon hypophthalmusengInt. J. of Aquatic Science2008-80192008-80192017-07-018212012470736New survey of Artemia Leach, 1819 (Crustacea: Anostraca) in Tunisia: Report of three new populationsHachem Ben Naceur1<span>The presence or absence of <em>Artemia </em>in some natural habitat can have several explanations. <em>Artemia </em>cysts can be naturally dispersed over long distances by becoming attached to feathers or after surviving passage through digestive system of wading birds or being carried by wind. They can be also deliberately inoculated into salt pans for salt production improvement or for aquaculture purpose. Tunisian wetlands are composed by 254 sites, where temporary saline lakes: sabkha and chott represent 30% of totals surface of wetland. In last <em>Artemia</em> biogeographical study in Tunisia, this branchiopod was reported from 23 sites. However, in this work <em>Artemia</em> is reported from three new sites composed by two natural salt lakes (Sabkhat Kouria and Sabkhet Nadhour) in Kuriat Island and one artificial pond of seawater desalination plant in Ben-Guerdane. Reproduction mode study revealed that <em>Artemia</em> from Sabkhat Kouria and Sabkhet Nadhour are bisexual, while <em>Artemia</em> from Ben-Guerdane is parthenogenetic. </span>http://www.journal-aquaticscience.com/article_70736_d0b01757a0874131025f463f1dbc7a84.pdfArtemiaDistributionreproduction modeTunisia