Production of Late Seedlings of Açai ( Euterpe oleraceae ) in an Aquaponic System with Tambaqui ( Colossoma macropomum, Curvier, 1818)

Edileno Tiago de Sousa Nascimento, Raimundo Formento Pereira Junior, Valéria Silva dos Reis, Bianca de Jesus Figueiredo Gomes, Marco Shizuo Owatari (), Ronald Kennedy Luz, Nuno Filipe Alves Correia de Melo, Maria de Lourdes Souza Santos, Glauber David Almeida Palheta and Fabio Carneiro Sterzelecki
Additional contact information
Edileno Tiago de Sousa Nascimento: Avenida Presidente Tancredo Neves, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Aquicultura e Recursos Aquáticos Tropicais, Instituto Socioambiental e dos Recursos Hídricos, Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia, Nº 2501 Bairro, Belém 66077-830, Brazil
Raimundo Formento Pereira Junior: Avenida Presidente Tancredo Neves, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Aquicultura e Recursos Aquáticos Tropicais, Instituto Socioambiental e dos Recursos Hídricos, Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia, Nº 2501 Bairro, Belém 66077-830, Brazil
Valéria Silva dos Reis: Avenida Presidente Tancredo Neves, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Aquicultura e Recursos Aquáticos Tropicais, Instituto Socioambiental e dos Recursos Hídricos, Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia, Nº 2501 Bairro, Belém 66077-830, Brazil
Bianca de Jesus Figueiredo Gomes: Avenida Presidente Tancredo Neves, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Aquicultura e Recursos Aquáticos Tropicais, Instituto Socioambiental e dos Recursos Hídricos, Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia, Nº 2501 Bairro, Belém 66077-830, Brazil
Marco Shizuo Owatari: Aquatic Organisms Health Laboratory—AQUOS, Aquaculture Department, Federal University of Santa Catarina (CCA/UFSC), Rodovia Admar Gonzaga 1346, Florianópolis 88040-900, Brazil
Ronald Kennedy Luz: Laboratório de Aquacultura, Departamento de Zootecnia de Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil
Nuno Filipe Alves Correia de Melo: Avenida Presidente Tancredo Neves, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Aquicultura e Recursos Aquáticos Tropicais, Instituto Socioambiental e dos Recursos Hídricos, Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia, Nº 2501 Bairro, Belém 66077-830, Brazil
Maria de Lourdes Souza Santos: Avenida Presidente Tancredo Neves, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Aquicultura e Recursos Aquáticos Tropicais, Instituto Socioambiental e dos Recursos Hídricos, Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia, Nº 2501 Bairro, Belém 66077-830, Brazil
Glauber David Almeida Palheta: Avenida Presidente Tancredo Neves, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Aquicultura e Recursos Aquáticos Tropicais, Instituto Socioambiental e dos Recursos Hídricos, Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia, Nº 2501 Bairro, Belém 66077-830, Brazil
Fabio Carneiro Sterzelecki: Avenida Presidente Tancredo Neves, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Aquicultura e Recursos Aquáticos Tropicais, Instituto Socioambiental e dos Recursos Hídricos, Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia, Nº 2501 Bairro, Belém 66077-830, Brazil

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-11

Abstract: Over the years, aquaponics has become a powerful technological tool that allows the sustainable production of food, integrating conventional fish farming with vegetable production. The present study evaluated the production of late seedlings of açai Euterpe oleraceae in an aquaponic system with tambaqui Colossoma macropomum . A total of 36 tambaquis with an initial average weight and length of 1086.75 ± 16.38 g and 38.49 ± 0.90 cm were distributed in 12 independent aquaponic units, totaling 3.62 kg m −3 . The fish were fed three times daily with commercial feed at a rate of 3%. Three flooding levels of 5, 10 and 15 cm, with constant water flow through the hydroponic bed (0.5 m 2 ), were evaluated, and a control-hydroponic bed with flooding levels of 10 cm was established, all in triplicate. In the 5 and 10 cm treatments, 3450 açai seedlings with an initial height of 12.3 ± 1.9 cm were used (575 per aquaponic units), while the 15 cm treatment contained non-germinated açai seeds. The control group did not receive açai seeds and remained empty. Analyses to monitor total dissolved solids (TDS), electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, alkalinity, hardness, nitrogenous compounds, and phosphate levels were performed. At the end of the 30-day trial, the growth performance of tambaqui and plants was evaluated. Water quality was significantly ( p < 0.05) affected by different flooding levels. Electrical conductivity and TDS decreased with an increasing in flooding levels. The flooding levels significantly influenced ( p < 0.05) the concentration of total ammonia and nitrate between the treatments. The 5 cm flooding level showed the best plant development indexes for total height, aerial portion height, root height and aerial portion fresh mass. No significant differences ( p < 0.05) were observed in tambaqui growth performance. The aquaponic system proved to be effective in reusing fish waste (excreta and feed leftovers) generated in the system. The biotransformation of waste into nutrients allowed the growth of plants and nitrifying bacteria, which, through their metabolic pathways, ensured the purification and reuse of water, avoiding the discharge of this waste into the environment.

Keywords: sustainability; regenerative; aquaculture; fish farming; agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/8/1581/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/8/1581/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:8:p:1581-:d:1213142

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().