Tilapia Fish Case Study

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Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known form of life (Thirumala et al 2012).It is one of the most precious resources on earth without which there would be no life on earth. It functions as a solvent for a wide variety of chemical substances and facilitates industrial cooling and transportation. (Eletta et al., 2005; Imtiyaz et al, 2012). Fish, like every other organism depends on its aquatic environment for food, growth, reproduction and health. The key feature of an ecosystem is the interaction among biotic and abiotic components. The external control and internal interaction combine to produce a certain ecosystem structure and species develop certain pattern of abundance, seasonality, biomass…show more content…
The result showed that most of the stomachs were full, seconded by three-quarter and half. This may be as a result of food availability and favorability nature of Lake Alau. Temperature for instance, if water becomes too hot or too cold, organisms become stressed, lowering their resistance to pollutants, diseases and parasites(Chapman and Hall 1992)and affects the rate at which fish feed generally. The result showed that the feeding and the stomach contents decreased or increased with change in temperature. From the month of June to December, the temperature fluctuates so also the feeding and the stomach contents of the fish.The stomach content of tilapia fish analyzed showed that Tilapia feed mostly on vegetable matters. Green algae(chlorophyceae), blue green algae (myxophyceae) and macrophytes tissues constituted their main food plant of origin. Rotifer, cladocera, copepods and insect parts constitute the food of animal origin.Tilapia fish preference for algae and vegetative matter may be attributed to its ability to secrete mucus from the gills that traps plankton; however, their ability to digest filamentous algae and aquatic macrophytes is through the mechanism of physical grinding of vegetative matter between the two pharyngeal plates of fine teeth and acidic nature (pH < 2) of the stomach which raptures the cell walls of algae and bacteria. Nevertheless, the frequencies of occurrence (FO) data on adults of these species were found to ingest more of vegetative matter, algae as well as macrophytes tissues. The monthly mean of numerical (Nm) data of adult tilapia ( 15cm - 21cm) showed that Green algae ranked the highest with value, followed by macrophytes tissues, Blue green algae, sand grain, detritus (annelids), insects parts, Rotifers , copepods and cladocera having the least

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