Aquaculture International 12: 409421, 2004. 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

Growth, survival and feed conversion rates of sea bream (Sparus aurata) cultured in earthen brackish water ponds fed different feed types
S. SADEK1,, M. FATHY OSMAN2 and M. ADEL MANSOUR3
1 Aquaculture Consultants Ofce, 9 Street No. 256, 11435 New-Maadi, Cairo, Egypt; 2 Department of Fish Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt; 3 Chairman of Zoocontrol-Egypt, 40 Mosadak Street, Doki, Guiza, Egypt; Author for

correspondence (e-mail: sadek_egypt35@hotmail.com) Received 27 February 2003; accepted 12 September 2003

Abstract. Sparus aurata were cultured during an 8-month period in brackish water (salinity about 25 ppt) in an extensive culture system comprising eight earthen ponds, each with a water surface of 2.1 ha. Initial mean wet weight of sh in all ponds varied from 13.6 1.9 to 19.2 2.6 g/sh. The eight ponds were randomly allocated one of four experimental treatments (two ponds/treatment). In the rst treatment, ponds were fertilized monthly with 100 kg urea and 50 kg triple super phosphate. The other treatments (24) were fed a locally produced tilapia pellet feed containing 25% crude protein made using different processes. Fish in the second treatment were fed tilapia feed pelleted by compressing machine, whereas in treatments 3 and 4 the pellets were produced by extruder machine (Wenger). Pellets in treatment 3 were oating and in the fourth were semi-sinking. Fish were fed pellets twice daily at 6% of their biomass. The mean nal body weight for each treatment respectively was 104.6, 118.9, 156.8 and 158 g. Specic growth rate (SGR) of 0.8, 0.79, 0.99 and 0.95%/day, were obtained in ponds using only inorganic fertilizer, compressed sinking pellets, extruded oating pellets and extruded semi-sinking pellets, respectively. Feed conversion ratios (FCR) for treatments with the extruded tilapia pellets were 2.2 and 2.6 g feed/g gain, which were signicantly (P < 0.05) better than treatments with compressed pellets (3.2 g feed/g gain). Production/ha/year were 1389, 1358, 945 and 682 kg sh for the groups fed with extruded oating, extruded semi-sinking, compressed and natural food, respectively. Under the present experimental circumstances, Sparus aurata fed extruded oating tilapia pellets (25% crude protein and 2,600 kcal/g), showed the best productive performance. Key words: Earthen ponds, Extensive culture, Extruded, Feeding, Floatingsinking, Sea bream

Introduction Sea bream (Sparus aurata, L.) has become established as one of the major farmed species of marine sh production in southern Europe (Kalifedas 1991). In Egypt, marine sh farming began in 1976 with the culture of sea

410 bream, Sparus aurata, as this sh was known to be adaptable to brackish and marine pond conditions (Sadek 2000). In 2001, cultured sea bream production was 1,053 tons, comprising 0.3% of the 342,865 tons total aquaculture catch (GAFRD 2002). Data obtained in recent years has reported that the development of sea bream culture in Egypt is severely inhibited by the shortage of ngerlings and adequate marine sh feeds (Sadek 2000). The status of sea bream production in Egypt is based on using extensive, semiintensive systems. The extensive system is more popular, where farmers stock ponds at low densities and sh derive most of their nutrition from the natural food present in ponds. Farmers also feed sea bream with wild collected sh (Tilapia zillii) and small size shrimp (Palaemon spp.) caught from northern delta lakes (Sadek 2000). In the semi-intensive system with slightly higher sh stocking density, farmers use tilapia feed, either made on the farm or bought from sh feed manufactures. At present, several governmental and private feed factories are producing pelleted sh feeds. Four companies have extrusion equipment and are able to produce high quality oating feed as well as sinking feed and semi-oating feed. Extrusion processing in the aquaculture feed industry has offered several advantages over steam-pelleting techniques (Rout and Bandyopahyay 1999). Optimum pellet characteristics can be obtained by extrusion, such as water stability, starch gelatinization and durability (Tan 1991; Wood 1995). The aim of the present study is to test the efcacy of four different kinds of feed on growth and feed utilization of sea bream (Sparus aurata): (1) natural food augmented through fertilization of pond water; (2) manufactured compressed pellets of tilapia feed; (3) extruded oating tilapia feed; and (4) extruded semi-sinking tilapia feed. In addition to testing the efcacy of feed, we also monitored simple indicators of water quality to see if feeds had any detrimental effects.

Materials and methods System management The experiment was carried out at a commercial sh farm located 20 km east of Damietta, and was designed to produce 30 tons of marine sh (sea bream, sea bass and mullet) per year. Twenty rectangular earthen ponds, each with a water surface of 2.1 ha, were constructed for experimental purposes; eight of them were chosen randomly for the present experiment. Water was sourced from a channel connected to both the Mediterranean sea (35 ppt) and Manzala lake (15 ppt), to reach salinity between (20 and 25 ppt). A daily water exchange of 510% of the pond volume was drained and relled, depending on

411 the ponds utilization (fertilizers or feed); the water volume was completely exchanged once each 1020 days. Ponds were relled at night, from 23:00 to 5:00 h due to increased oxygenation at night. Sea bream (Sparus aurata) ngerlings were obtained from the Mediterranean coast at Damietta in El-Tawawil area, located in the north western area of Lake Manazala and were stocked the earthen ponds with stocking densities of 7,140 per ha. Fifty random samples of sh were weighed to the nearest gram at the beginning of culture and at harvest. Mean initial body weight of the stocked sh in each pond was between 13.6 and 19.2 g/sh (Table 1). The experiment was carried out for 8 months, from July 2001 to March 2002. Each treatment had two replicates. Inorganic fertilizer and feeding In (Group 1) inorganic fertilizer was used monthly at a rate of 50 kg urea and 25 kg of triple super phosphate/hectare. The other sh groups used only compound tilapia feed. During the experiment sh were fed twice daily at a rate of 3% of sh body mass per day. Feed amount was corrected according to biweekly samples from each pond. The feed used in the experiment was from two different companies operating in the Egyptian market; both are 25% crude protein and 2,600 kcal ME/g. The primary difference between the types of feed was the processing methods used in their manufacture. The rst feed (Group 2) was pelleted using a steam compressing machine, the second and the third feed (Groups 3 and 4) were produced with an extruder machine (Wenger), where the second feed was oating and the third feed was semi-sinking, respectively. Water chemistry Temperature, pH, salinity and oxygen were determined weekly. Water temperature was recorded using a common laboratory thermometer, pH was determined with a Beckman Chem-Mate pH meter, salinity was recorded by a portable refractometer (Gorgio Bormac Model 106 ATC) and dissolved oxygen was measured using an oxygen meter (WTW/OXI 91). Water analysis for NH4 + (as free ammonium) was performed twice a week using a Hach Test Kit (Model DR). Water samples were taken during the morning hours prior to rst feeding and reported as weekly averages. Dissolved oxygen was determined daily at 05:00 and unionized ammonia (free ammonia) was determined before cleaning (draining) and relling the water pond at 22:00 h.

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Table 1. Stocking data of sea bream (Sparus aurata) at the beginning of the experiment reared in monoculture under extensive conditions in earthen brackish water ponds at different feeding strategies Items Group 1 (with fertilizer) 104.6 10.6 7140 14.7 1.5 247 Group 2 (compressed sinking sh feed 25% CP) 128.9 11.6 7140 18.1 1.6 239 Group 3 (extruded oating sh feed 25% CP) 107.8 5.1 7140 15.1 0.7 238 Group 4 (extruded semi-sinking sh feed 25% CP) 125.3 4.5 7140 17.6 0.6 234

Total biomass at stocking (kg/pond SD) Number of sea bream (stocked/ha) Mean weight at stocking (g/sh SD) Growth period (days)

413 Statistical analysis The results obtained were statistically analyzed (ANOVA) by using the SAS/PC statistical software (SAS Institute, Cary, NC) and signicance was set at (P < 0.05). Differences between treatment means were determined by Duncans new multiple range test (Duncan 1955). Results Production parameters In the extensive ponds, where Sparus aurata sh had only natural food, mean nal weight (104.6 g/sh) was signicantly (P < 0.05) lower than those fed either compressed or extruded tilapia diets (Table 2). Fish reared in ponds grew signicantly (P < 0.05) faster when fed extruded commercial tilapia diet than those fed compressed pellets. Fish fed the semi-sinking pellet had a mean nal body weight of 158 g/sh. For sh fed the oating extruded pellets, nal mean body weight was 156.8 g/sh. Compressed pellets had a moderate effect on growth rate of Sparus aurata, where nal body weight of sh received compressed pellets was 118.9 g/sh. There were signicant differences (P < 0.05) in SGR between sh fed a commercial extruded tilapia diet (0.99 and 0.95% for the oating and semi-sinking extruded pellets, respectively) and sh fed compressed tilapia feed, which had 0.79% SGR or in extensive culture used only inorganic fertilizer (0.8%). Under the present experimental circumstances, Sparus aurata fed extruded oating tilapia pellets (25% crude protein and 2,600 kcal/g), showed the best productive performance (Table 2). Feed utilization parameters Feed conversion ratios of sh fed extruded pellets (Table 3) were better than that found with compressed pellets. Fish fed oating extruded pellets were not signicantly better (P > 0.05) FCR (2.2 g feed/g gain) than those of sh fed the extruded semi-sinking pellets (2.6 g feed/g gain), and both were signicantly better (P < 0.05) than those fed compressed pellets (3.2 g feed/g gain). In addition the PER of the feeding treatments showed that groups 3 and 4 had signicantly (P < 0.05) higher values (2.1 and 1.8 g gain/g protein intake, respectively) than the second feeding treatments (1.4 g gain/g protein intake). Survival rates Statistical analysis of data for the experimental ponds showed that no signicant differences were observed in survival for any of the treatments fed

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Table 2. Growth performance of sea bream (Sparus aurata) reared in monoculture earthen brackish water ponds at different feeding strategies Items Treatment 1 (with fertilizer) Treatment 2 (compressed sinking sh feed 25% CP) 118.9b 3.3 5204a 191 27.1b 2.7 100.9b 1.6 1029b 58.8 2.20b 0.11 0.79b 0.03 749b 38.9 Treatment 3 (extruded oating sh feed 25% CP) 156.8a 6.4 5781a 105 19.1b 1.5 141.7a 5.7 1676a 33.0 7.2a 0.14 0.99a 0.01 1224a 17.0 Treatment 4 (extruded semi-sinking sh feed 25% CP) 158.0a 1.3 5498a 202 23b 2.8 140.9a 0.6 1566a 62.1 7.0a 0.21 0.95a 0.01 1163a 38.9

Mean weight at harvesting (g SD) Number of sea bream at harvesting (sh/pond SD) Mortality rate (% SD) Gain yield (g/sh SD) Gain yield (kg/pond SD) Total daily increment (kg/pond/day SD) Specic Growth Rate (SGR SD) Production (kg/ha/year SD)

104.6c 3.3 4401b 439 38.5a 6.4 89.9c 1.8 748c 104.7 1.61c 0.23 0.80b 0.01 528c 85.6

a,b,c Means with the same superscript in each row within each comparison are not signicantly different (P < 0.05).

Pond = 2.1 ha Gain yield (g/sh) = w1 w0 Gain yield (kg/pond) = 2.1{(w1 n1 ) (w0 n0 )} SGR = 100{(lin w1 lin w0 )/days} Production (kg/ha/year) = {(Gain yield per pond/2.1)/days of the experimental period} 365 w1 = weight at the end; n1 = number of sh at the end of the experiment; w0 = weight at the beginning; n0 = number of sh at the beginning of the experiment.

Table 3. Feed utilization parameters of sea bream (Sparus aurata) reared in monoculture earthen brackish water ponds at different feeding strategies Items Treatment 1 (with fertilizer) Treatment 2 (compressed sinking sh feed 25% CP) 3304b 19.8 3.2a 0.14 1.4b 0.08 Treatment 3 (extruded oating sh feed 25% CP) 3616ab 319.0 2.2b 0.14 2.1a 0.14 Treatment 4 (extruded semi-sinking sh feed 25% CP) 3982a 12.0 2.6b 0.07 1.8a 0.05

Feed consumed (kg/pond SD) Feed conversion ratio (kg feed/kg gain SD) Protein Efciency Ratio (PER SD)

a,b Means with the same superscript in each row within each comparison are not signicantly different (P < 0.05). PER = Gain (g/sh)/protein intake (g/sh). Protein Intake = {(Feed consumed g/sh)% feed dry matter}% protein in diet).

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Table 4. Water quality of sea-bream earthen ponds at different feeding strategies (gures between parentheses showing the number of tests) Group 1 (with fertilizer) Group 2 (compressed sinking sh feed 25% CP) 18 6 (72) 8.2 0.8 (72) 25 3 (62) 3.8 0.6 (72) 0.04 0.01 (36) Group 3 (extruded oating sh feed 25% CP) 20 5 (72) 8.1 0.9 (72) 26 4 (62) 4.1 0.3 (68) 0.02 0.03 (36) Group 4 (extruded semi-sinking sh feed 25% CP) 20 4 (72) 8.1 0.8 (72) 26 3 (64) 4.0 0.5 (70) 0.03 0.02 (32)

Temperature ( C) pH Salinity (ppt) Oxygen (mg L1 ) Un-ionized ammonia (NH3 mg L1 )

19 5 (72) 8.3 0.7 (72) 25 2 (66) 3.6 0.8 (72) 0.03 0.02 (33)

417 compounded feeds. However the mortality in Group 1 (no articial feed) was signicant higher (P < 0.05 than the other feeding groups (Table 2). Water chemistry Mean values of water quality were calculated to provide an overview of changes in the culture earthen ponds during the experimental period (Table 3). Water temperature (n = 288) varied from 12 to 25 C depending upon environmental variation. The water pH was 8.1 0.9 (n = 288) during the rearing period, and reached a higher level during the last 3 months. Salinity was 25 4 ppt (n = 254). Dissolved oxygen levels in the sh ponds were 4.1 1.3 mg L1 (n = 282) at 05:00 h. Oxygen data showed the uctuations of oxygen, varying from 3.2 mg L1 (n = 124) during summer season, to 4.5 mg L1 (n = 158) during winter season at 05:00 h. An un-ionized am1 1 (n = 137) was determmonia (NH 3 ) concentration of 0.03 0.02 mg L ined during the rearing period. Data obtained for the physical and chemicals parameters indicate that water quality parameters were unlikely to imposed extensive stress on the different sh groups. Under the present experimental condition it is clear enough that extruded tilapia feeds are the most effective and that there is not much difference between oating extruded feed and semi-sinking extruded feed. It is also clear that manufactured compressed feed did not erode water quality at the stocking densities and feed levels used.

Discussion Sea bream nutrition has recently received considerable attention because of the importance of nutrition on sh growth and health, as well as on the cost of production (Koven 2002). The expansion of intensied production practices are dependent mainly on availability of economical articial feeds (Negas et al. 1996). In their evaluation of sea bream rearing in Egypt, Eisawy and Wassef (1984) reported in extensive culture within the same area of our experiment, that S. aurata grow well in brackish water ponds and sh seem adaptable to pond conditions (salinity ranged from 23.5 to 26.5 ppt). They attained an average weight of about 78 g after 8 months (April to November) without supplementary feeding or fertilizers. Sea bream sh in the present study achieved 141 g/sh weight gain when they were fed commercial feeds for 8 months under salinity ranged between 20 and 25 ppt. El-Ghobashy et al. (1993) studied the effect of supplementary feeding on the yield of four marine sh species (D. labrax, S. aurata, L. ramada and M. cephalus) reared in polyculture in brackish water ponds for 16 months.

418 Sea bream contributed 440 kg/ha to the total yield of 1,700 kg/ha (26%) over a period of 16 months. It appears that the results obtained in our experiment (3,616 kg/ha over 8 months, using extruded oating feed), were higher than those obtained in this earlier study. Specic Growth Rate (SGR) was about 1% per day (Table 2), similar to the gure obtained in the included reference. It could be concluded that the application of supplementary feeding for the whole rearing period considerably improves bream survival, growth performance, pond yield and economic protability. Production cost ($) per kg sh gain were calculated according to the market price ($ = 4.28 L.E.), where the cost of 1 kg compressed pellets was $0.22, the cost of 1 kg extruded oating pellets was $0.28 and the cost of 1 kg extruded semi-sinking pellets was $0.27. Fertilization calculated according to the price of 1 kg urea was $0.14 and the price of 1 kg super phosphate was $0.17 (Table 5). It seems that under extensive aquaculture system fertilization is quite enough to produce sea bream sh. However, under semi-intensive aquaculture system when using food is obligatory, extruded oating pellets were more economic than either the extruded semi-sinking or compressed pellets. In the present experiment ponds were stocked with 13.619.2 g/sh, which reached 104.6158.0 g/sh after 8 months. However (El-Ghobashy et al. 1993) stocked sh with initial body weight 2.9 1.7 g in brackish water ponds for 16 months to obtain a sh with an average body weight of about 324.2 55 g. In the present study better performance was obtained with groups 3 and 4 using extruded pellets feed. This may due to the better energy utilization when feed starch was extruded. Booth et al. (2000) also concluded that extrusion technology might lead to greater improvement in sh performance. Several studies (Negas et al. 1996; Kissil et al. 2000) have reported that a standard sea bream diet containing 47% crude protein and 10% lipid for
Table 5. Feed cost per kg sh produced for each treatment Group 1 Group 2 (with fertilizer) (compressed sinking pellet, 25% CP) Feed consumed (kg/ha) Cost of kg feed ($/kg) Cost ($/ha) 86.4a Gain yield (kg/ha) 356 $/kg weight gain 0.24
a 381 kg urea + 190 kg super phosphate/ha.

Group 3 (extruded oating pellet, 25% CP) 1722 280 482 798 0.60

Group 4 (extruded semisinking pellet, 25% CP) 1896 269 510 746 0.68

1573 0.222 349 490 0.71

419 maximum growth. In our study, using a tilapia formula with less protein, lipid and ME, 25%, 4.3% and 2,600 kcal/g (minimum), respectively, gave an acceptable specic growth rate (0.99%) using extruded oating pellet, followed by the extruded semi-sinking pellet (0.95%). El-Ghobashy et al. (1993) evaluated one hectare extensive earthen ponds (ponds were left without any supplementary feeding using only fertilizers), each pond was stocked with 5,200 ngerling/pond of different species. Water temperature and salinity ranged from 14 to 35 C and 11 to 24 ppt, respectively. The gain yield reached 406.4 kg/ha. Compared with the un-fed ponds in our study (7,140 ngerling/ha) but using the monoculture system, gain yield reached 832 kg/ha. Un-fed sea bream (treatment 1) may have obtained sufcient supplemental nutrition from natural food in the pond to increase their growth near to that of sh fed compressed pellet (89%). An explanation may be that the sh did not get the benet of poor compressed sh feed, which could not be eaten and was acting as a fertilizer for the water pond. The effect of supplementary feeding on survival and growth performance has been reported by El-Ghobashy et al. (1993). In ponds without supplementary feeding the survival rate of sea bream was reported to be 10.3%. However, ponds fed for a short period before harvesting had double the survival (20.6%). In our study the un-fed ponds survival was higher (61%). For ponds fed compressed pellets, extruded oating and extruded semi-sinking pellets, survival was 73, 81 and 77%, respectively. The average survival of either un-fed or fed sh was higher in our experiment than the result reported in the study by El-Ghobashy et al. (1993). In our study the feed conversion ratio for the compressed feed has a poor gure (3.2 kg diet/kg gain) and better gures (2.2 and 2.6 kg diet/kg gain) for the extruded oating and extruded semi-sinking pellet, respectively. An explanation may be that extrusion technology improves the feed utilization, especially in sh feeds (Kiang 1989). All of the extruded feeds are of high quality. They are highly palatable, water stable and digestible, but did not meet all the nutritional requirements of the sea bream. The feed manufactured via the pellet mill was in water less stable and will not remain intact longer than a feed prepared in a pellet mill. In addition both oating and semi-sinking sh feed could help the best use of pellet (Riaz 2003). No signicant differences between treatments were observed for the weight gain of the sh at harvest (Group 3 = 141.7 g and Group 4 = 140.9 g). Water temperature in addition to the capability of sh observation, could be a second factor affecting the growth production. The economics of a standard sea bream formula feeding is an important aspect of commercial sea bream culture that needs further study. Also further studies are needed to dene specic nutrient requirements for sea bream in

420 semi-intensive culture system rather than requirements in intensive culture using tanks or cages.

Acknowledgment We would like to express our sincere appreciation and gratitude to Mr. Abdallah Hafez (Owner of a marine sh farm at Mussallas zone, Damietta, Egypt), for allowing to use his facilities to conduct this experiment.

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