The Effect of Stocking Different Ratios of Nile Tilapia Oreochromis niloticus, Striped Mullet Mugil cephalus, and Thinlip Grey Mullet Liza ramada in Polyculture Ponds on Biomass Yield, Feed Efficiency, and Production Economics

Abstract

A 180‐d trial was done to evaluate the effect of stocking different ratios of Nile Tilapia Oreochromis niloticus, Striped Mullet Mugil cephalus, and Thinlip Grey Mullet Liza ramada on production and economic return in brackish‐water ponds. The trial was conducted in twelve 3,000‐m2 earthen ponds with four treatments (3 ponds/treatment): Nile Tilapia alone (100% Nile Tilapia, monoculture group [MG]); 75% Nile Tilapia and 25% Thinlip Grey Mullet (polyculture group 1 [PG1]); 75% Nile Tilapia, 12.5% Thinlip Grey Mullet, and 12.5% Striped Mullet (PG2); and 75% Nile Tilapia and 25% Striped Mullet (PG3). Fish were fed a commercial diet containing 25% crude protein twice per day. The efficiency of feed utilization was determined in terms of feed conversion ratio (FCR; feed intake/weight gain). Polyculture group 3 had the best FCR, whereas the FCR results did not differ significantly among the MG, PG1, and PG2 treatments. In addition, PG3 had the highest total yield (3,350.3 kg/pond), followed in descending order by PG2 (3,234.4 kg/pond), PG1 (3,078.4 kg/pond), and MG (2,856.3 kg/pond). The PG3 treatment achieved the highest net financial return, followed by PG2, PG1, and MG. This study indicates that tilapia–mullet polyculture may improve the efficiency with which natural food resources are used within the system, resulting in better environmental quality, system sustainability, feed utilization, and net financial return.

Tilapia polyculture: a global review

“…The effect of stocking different ratios of Nile Tilapia, striped mullet, and thinlip grey mullet in brackish water ponds, was investigated for yield and economic return. This study found improvement in the utilization of food resources; resulting in better environmental quality, system sustainability and net financial return (Tahoun et al 2013).…”

“…This study found improvement in the utilization of food resources; resulting in better environmental quality, system sustainability and net financial return (Tahoun et al . ).…”

“…Tilapia are also reared with striped mullet Mugil cephalus, thinlip grey mullet Liza ramada , milkfish Chanos chanos, sharptoothed catfish Clarias gariepinus and silver barb Puntius gonionotus (Cruz & Laudencia ; Rothuis, Duong, Richter & Ollevier ; Omondi, Gichuri & Veverica ; Tahoun, Suloma, Hammouda, Abo‐State & El‐Haroun ). All‐male Nile tilapia can be cultured with milkfish, without affecting their growth and production, at ratios of 1–3 tilapia to five milkfish (2:5 is the optimum ratio), because there is no food competition between the two species (Cruz & Laudencia ).…”

“…In polyculture systems, operating characteristics such as stocking densities, timing of culture of different species and age of polyculture species have attracted much attention in the previous research (Junior, Paula, Azevedo & Henry-Silva 2012;Simão et al 2013;Tahoun et al 2013). Other important aspects are the combination of species, and the culture model.…”

Re-Evaluation of the Effect of Daily and Within-Day Mixed Feeding Schedules of Varying Dietary Protein Content on the Growth Performance of Nile Tilapia Fry Using Constant Ingredient Composition

“…Nutrition constitutes more than 50% of the total production costs in intensive fish culture systems [1][2][3]. Protein represents the most expensive part of fish diets.…”