Rearing Rabbits Over Earthen Fish Ponds in Rwanda: Effects on Water and Sediment Quality, Growth, and Production of Nile Tilapia Oreochromis niloticus

Simon Rukera Tabaro, Onisimo Mutanga, Denis Rugege, Jean-Claude Micha

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Nine earthen ponds of 400 m2 each, were stocked with 800 mixed sex Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus fingerlings (14 g mean weight stocked at 2 fish/m-2) and fertilized with rabbit droppings from rabbits reared over fish ponds and stocked at three different densities: T1 = one, T2 = two, and T4 = four rabbits per 100 m2 of pond. After 152 days, results from this integrated rabbit/fish system showed: 1) increasing nutrient content of all ponds in the three treatments except for nitrates, which decreased with time and, 2) good water quality in terms of pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity. Fish mean weight at harvest and fish yield were higher in ponds fertilized by the highest rabbit stocking rate: 42.32 g and 6.35 ± 1.0 kg/are, respectively (1 are = 100 m2).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)170-181
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of Applied Aquaculture
Volume24
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2012

Keywords

  • fish production
  • pond soil quality
  • Rabbit survival
  • water quality

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