Growth performance of spiny lobster Panulirus ornatus in land based Integrated Multi Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) system
Aquaculture waste in the form of particulate organic matter and inorganic nutrients produces negative impacts when released to the environment. Integrated Multi Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) system is gaining importance for reasons of its environmental compatibility and quality of yield. The purpose of this study is to compare growth performance of a popular specis of spiny lobster in two different rearing systems. These were modeled based on recirculating system (RS) and flow through system (FTS) Spiny lobster (Panulirus ornatus) sea cucumber (Holothuria scabra) and seaweed (Kappaphycus alvarezii) were used in the trials in both these systems. Water flow rate was maintained at 0.08 A+ 0.1 L/sec. The stocking rate was 5 specimens tank for spiny lobster (mean weight of 151.44 A+ 7.14 g) and sea cucumber (mean weight of 32.16 A+ 1.40 g) while mean initial biomass for seaweed was 500.65 A+ 1.76 g/tank. Trials were conducted for 10 weeks. The results indicated that the SGR of lobster was not significantly different (p>0.05) in FTS (0.125 day 1 and in RS (0.096 day 1 There was no significant difference (p>0.05) in the survival of spiny lobster in FTS and RS. The survival rate of spiny lobster was 93.3 and 80.0 in FTS and RS, respectively. The inorganic nutrients, namely ammonia (NH3) nitrite (NO2) nitrate (NO3) and phosphate (PO4) were significantly higher p<0.05) in RS than in FTS. Evidently, the FTS is the better option for culture in terms of efficiency of water quality remediation and growth of the stocked species