Waste excretion of marble goby (Oxyeleotris marmorata Bleeker) fed with different diets

Marble goby (Oxyeleotris marmorata Bleeker), with its high demand and price, has a great potential as a profitable commercial aquaculture candidate in Malaysia and Southeast Asia region. Efforts are being made to produce this species in a better controlled culture environment like recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) due to poor growth performance and disease problems shown by conventional cage and outdoor pond culture systems. Quantification of waste excreted by fish is critical to RAS design. This study was conducted to characterize the waste excretion rates of marble goby fed with different diets (live food and minced fish). Ammonia-N (TAN), urea-N, nitrite-N (NO₂-N), nitrate-N (NO₃-N), total-N (TN), organic-N (ON), feces-N, 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅) and total suspended solid (TSS) produced from marble goby were determined over a 72-h excretion period. Under given experimental conditions, the results showed that feed type had significant influence on the waste excretion rates, with marble goby fed live tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) exhibiting significantly (P < 0.05) the lowest amount of waste excretion comparable to that of fish fed live common carp (Cyprinus carpio) and minced scads (Decapterus russellii). This indicates that feeding marble goby with tilapia poses less adverse effects on water quality and is thus a suitable diet for this species. The waste excreted by the fish is composed of nitrogenous excretion (TAN, Urea-N, ON, Feces-N), and productions of dissolved biodegradable organic substances (BOD₅) and TSS (TSS_feces + TSS_water). About 58-71% of the nitrogen consumed in food was excreted and its rate depended mainly on the feed type. TAN was the chief end-product of protein metabolism; about 74-84% of the daily total nitrogenous excretion was TAN. Urea-N accounted for 13-21% of the daily total nitrogenous excretion indicating that urea-N is an important nitrogenous excretory end-product in marble goby. The waste excretion data presented in this study can be served as a pre-requisite for designing a RAS for this species. The overall BOD₅ and TSS production found in this study also point to the need for including bio-filtration unit and suspended solids removal mechanism in the RAS design.