Beta
361015

Effect of Tank Structural Enrichment on Behavior and Growth of the Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Article

Last updated: 01 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

-

Abstract

Environmental structural enrichment is a method to increase environmental heterogeneity, which may reduce stress and improve animal welfare. Previous studies have shown that environmental enrichment can increase the growth rate, decrease aggressive and anxiety-like behaviors and reduce cortisol levels in animals. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of environmental enrichment on the behavior (boldness and aggressiveness) and growth (total length, standard length, weight) of the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Boldness, aggressiveness, total length, standard length, and weight were weekly measured over a 13-week period (during weeks 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11) for fish housed in three treatment tanks: no structural enrichment (NSE), moderate structural enrichment (MSE), and heavy structural enrichment (HSE). Significant differences were detected in boldness, aggressiveness, total length, standard length and weight among the three treatments as the weeks progressed (P< 0.05). Boldness was the highest in fish reared in tanks with heavy structural enrichment as the weeks progressed (P< 0.05). However, aggressiveness was lowest across weeks in fish reared in tanks with heavy structural enrichment (P< 0.05). The highest levels of growth, in terms of weight (P< 0.05), total length (P< 0.05), and standard length (P< 0.05), were recorded in the fish reared in tanks with heavy structural enrichments across weeks (P< 0.05). This study suggests that the growth of Oreochromis niloticus might be influenced by the structural enrichment of their rearing environment. Therefore, future related studies should consider environmental structural enrichment to enhance the growth of Oreochromis niloticus.

DOI

10.21608/ejabf.2024.361015

Keywords

aggressiveness, Boldness, Growth, Oreochromis niloticus, Structural enrichment

Authors

First Name

Tolulope

Last Name

Ariyomo et al.

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

-

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

28

Article Issue

3

Related Issue

47485

Issue Date

2024-05-01

Receive Date

2024-06-19

Publish Date

2024-05-01

Page Start

951

Page End

966

Print ISSN

1110-6131

Online ISSN

2536-9814

Link

https://ejabf.journals.ekb.eg/article_361015.html

Detail API

https://ejabf.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=361015

Order

55

Type

Original Article

Type Code

103

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries

Publication Link

https://ejabf.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Effect of Tank Structural Enrichment on Behavior and Growth of the Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Details

Type

Article

Created At

23 Dec 2024