Farming tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) in static clear water versus a biofloc system with or without Bacillus subtilis supplementation

• Published in: Aquaculture international Vol. 29; no. 1; pp. 207 - 218
• Main Authors: dos Santos, Driely Kathriny Monteiro, Kojima, Juliana Tomomi, Santana, Thiago Macedo, de Castro, Diogo Pereira, Serra, Paula Taquita, Dantas, Naiara Silva Menezes, da Fonseca, Flávio Augusto Leão, Mariúba, Luís André Morais, Gonçalves, Ligia Uribe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-02-2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aquaculture; Aquaculture effluents; Bacillus subtilis; Bacteria; Biofloc technology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biometrics; Body composition; Colossoma macropomum; Condition factor; Effluents; Farming; Feed conversion; Fish; Food conversion; Freshwater & Marine Ecology; Growth rate; Inoculation; Juveniles; Life Sciences; Probiotics; Proteins; Water quality; Weekly; Zoology; Probiotic; Biofloc technology system; Zootechnical performance
• ISSN: 0967-6120; 1573-143X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10499-020-00618-w

The use of probiotics can beneficially improve the water quality in the biofloc technology (BFT) system consequently enhancing the fish performance. This study focused on the effect of
Bacillus subtilis
on a clear water static system compared to the BFT system on the productive performance, proximate body composition, and diversity of intestinal bacterial communities of tambaqui (
Colossoma macropomum
) juveniles submitted to four treatments: clear water static system with (CW + BS) or without (CW)
B. subtilis
and BFT with (BFT + BS) or without (BFT)
B. subtilis
. For the study, 20 juveniles (five replicates) per treatment were used for 60 days. For the
B. subtilis
treatments, water was inoculated at weekly intervals with a 4 × 10
8
-cell mL
−1
culture suspension. Results revealed that regardless of
B. subtilis
supplementation, fish reared in BFT displayed better zootechnical performance than those in CW—weight gain (BFT 33.57 ± 4.08 g; CW 19.97 ± 5.42 g), protein efficiency (BFT 0.16 ± 0.02; CW 0.11 ± 0.02), feed conversion ratio (BFT 0.71 ± 0.08; CW 0.84 ± 0.40), and relative growth rate (BFT 1.52 ± 0.12; CW 1.06 ± 0.15)—which suggests that biofloc consumption was 31.9% crude protein. Moreover, fish reared in BFT + BS had a higher condition factor (2.30 ± 0.09). In conclusion, BFT is regarded as a promising system to save water, decrease aquaculture effluents, and promote tambaqui farming. Although
B. subtilis
is a common bacterium found in tambaqui gut, its supplementation in the BFT system improved the fish condition factor.