Freshwater-adapted sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax feeding frequency impact in a lettuce Lactuca sativa aquaponics system

Paraskevi Stathopoulou; Panagiotis Berillis; Nikolaos Vlahos; Eleni Nikouli; Konstantinos A Kormas; Efi Levizou; Nikolaos Katsoulas; Eleni Mente

doi:10.7717/peerj.11522

Freshwater-adapted sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax feeding frequency impact in a lettuce Lactuca sativa aquaponics system

PeerJ. 2021 Jun 3:9:e11522. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11522. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Paraskevi Stathopoulou¹, Panagiotis Berillis¹, Nikolaos Vlahos^{1

2}, Eleni Nikouli¹, Konstantinos A Kormas¹, Efi Levizou³, Nikolaos Katsoulas³, Eleni Mente¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment, School of Agricultural Sciences, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece.
² Department of Animal Production, Fisheries and Aquaculture, School of Agricultural Sciences, University of Patras, Mesolonghi, Greece.
³ Department of Agriculture Crop Production and Rural Environment, School of Agricultural Sciences, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of three daily fish feeding frequencies, two, four and eight times per day (FF2, FF4, and FF8, respectively) on growth performance of sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)and lettuce plants (Lactuca sativa) reared in aquaponics. 171 juvenile sea bass with an average body weight of 6.80 ± 0.095 g were used, together with 24 lettuce plants with an average initial height of 11.78 ± 0.074 cm over a 45-day trial period. FF2 fish group showed a significantly lower final weight, weight gain and specific growth rate than the FF4 and FF8 groups. Voluntary feed intake was similar for all the three feeding frequencies treatmens (p > 0.05). No plant mortality was observed during the 45-day study period. All three aquaponic systems resulted in a similar leaf fresh weight and fresh and dry aerial biomass. The results of the present study showed that the FF4 or FF8 feeding frequency contributes to the more efficient utilization of nutrients for better growth of sea bass adapted to fresh water while successfully supporting plant growth to a marketable biomass.

Keywords: Aquaponics; Feeding frequency; Juvenile sea bass; Lettuce; Water reuse.

Grants and funding

This research has been co-financed by the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH–CREATE–INNOVATE (project code: T1EDK-01153, Acronym: FoodOASIS). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.