Comparative study of growth, feed efficiency, and hematological profile of Nile tilapia fingerlings in biofloc technology and recirculating aquaculture system

The present study was conducted to compare the growth performance, feed efficiency, nitrogen retention, water quality, biofloc nutritional composition, and hematological profile of Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus fingerlings cultured in biofloc technology (BFT) and recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) over a period of 60 days. This randomized study was designed with two treatments (BFT and RAS) and four replicates. Fish (n = 64; 7.29 ± 0.67) were allocated in eight 150 L aquaria kept at 26.72 ± 0.35 °C and fed until apparent satiation three times daily. Weight gain, apparent feed conversion ratio, and protein efficiency of fish in BFT were statistically superior than in RAS. There were no differences (p > 0.05) for temperature, dissolved oxygen, and nitrogen compounds, indicating similarity in the water quality between BFT and RAS. Furthermore, hematological parameters did not show differences (p > 0.05) between the systems. The chemical composition of biofloc differed (p < 0.05) over the experimental period for crude protein and mineral matter. The best responses of growth performance and feed efficiency of Nile tilapia fingerlings in BFT highlight the importance of bioflocs as a high biological value complementary feed.