Growth performance of goldfish, Carassius auratus and basil, Ocimum basilicum in media bed aquaponics

Abstract

An experiment of 36 days duration was conducted to study the growth performance of goldfish Carassius auratus and basil Ocimum basilicum reared in a media bed aquaponic system. Goldfish fry (3.32 ± 0.45 g and 4.20 ± 0.39 cm) were stocked in rectangular 75 l capacity (water volume of 50 l) plastic tanks at three different stocking densities viz., 500 m-3 (T1), 600 m-3 (T2) and 700 m-3 (T3), respectively and basil plants were planted at a density of 20 m-2, i.e., 10 plants 0.44 m-2 in the rectangular plastic tanks filled with crushed stone media. The goldfish fry were fed with artificial feed (33% protein) at 5% of body weight in equal proportions, two times a day. Control (C) group was set with only basil plants. Growth parameters of goldfish such as length gain (%), weight gain (%) and specific growth rate (% d-1) were significantly higher in T3 (p<0.05) as compared to T1 and T2. However, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) did not differ between treatments. Similarly, basil plant growth in terms of height gain (%) and leaves yield (nos. plant-1) were found to be highest in T3 which was significantly different from T1, T2 and control (C). Throughout the experimental period, values of water parameters in all the treatments were found to be in favourable ranges. From the results of the present study, it could be concluded that for maintaining good water quality with the highest production in media bed aquaponics, the optimum stocking density is 700 m-3 for goldfish fry and 10 plants per 0.44 m2 for basil plants.