Aquaculture and Fisheries 2 (2017) 220e226

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Aquaculture and Fisheries

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a q u a c u l t u r e - a n d - fi s h e r i e s /

Original research article

Comparing salinities of 0, 10 and 20 in biofloc genetically improved

farmed tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) production systems
Guozhi Luo a, b, c, *, Wenqing Li a, Hongxin Tan a, b, c, Xiaoqing Chen a
a
College of Fisheries and Life Science, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China
b
Research and Development Center of Aquacultural Engineering of Shanghai, Shanghai 201306, China
c
Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Center for Aquatic Animal Genetics and Breeding, Shanghai 201306, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A 150 days (150-d) experiment was carried out to investigate the production efficiency, inorganic ni-
Received 9 March 2017 trogen syndrome and bacteria community of indoor biofloc technology (BFT) systems used to rear
Received in revised form genetically improved farmed tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) under 0 (S-0), 10 (S-10), and 20 salinities (S-
9 October 2017
20). The start-up period for BFT was 50, 60 and 80 d for S-0, S-10 and S-20 groups, respectively. At steady
Accepted 10 October 2017
state, the total ammonium nitrogen (NHþ 
4 -N) and nitrite nitrogen (NO2 -N) were lower than 3.0 mg/L and

0.34 mg/L, respectively and no nitrate-nitrogen (NO3 -N) accumulation was observed. The fish survival
rate was above 95% for all the groups. The final fish biomass of the S-10 group (35.83 ± 1.08 kg/m3) was
Keywords:
Genetically improved farm tilapia (GIFT)
not significantly different from the S-0 (34.79 ± 1.33 kg/m3) group but was significantly higher than S-20
Tilapia (32.6 ± 1.04 kg/m3). The feed conversion ratio for the tilapia in S-20 was 1.46, which was higher than the
Bioflocs technology ratio in S-0 (1.40) and S-10 (1.39) tilapia. There was no significant difference in the crude protein content
Growth performance of the back muscle from tilapia of the three experimental groups. No significant difference in blood
Bacteria community parameters, except for aspartate aminotransferase and alkaline phosphatase was observed between the
Inorganic nitrogen three groups. Evaluation of microorganisms in the three BFT systems revealed that Proteobacteria, Bac-
teroidetes, and Fusobacteria were the top three at the phylum level in all groups. However, a significant
difference was observed at the genus level in the bacteria of the three BFTs at different salinity (P < 0.05).
© 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Shanghai Ocean University. This is an open access article
under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

1. Introduction et al., 2014; Rakocy, Bailey, Thoman, & Shultz, 2004).

Over the past decade, biofloc technology (BFT) used in aqua-
culture (BFT-aquaculture) has received extensive attention because
it permits high biomass yields, feed protein recycling and small
water discharges (Crab, Chielens, Wille, Bossier, & Verstraete,
2010). Filter feeders, for example, tilapia, are ideal for BFT-
aquaculture system (Azim & Little, 2008). Tilapia is one of the
most important aquaculture species in China and the world and in
2014 global tilapia production reached 6.3 million tons and it is
expected to continue to increase exponentially (FAO, 2016). Tilapia
production in biofloc technology (BFT) has been well developed
due to its notable advantages over traditional farming, even recir-
culating aquaculture systems (RAS), including high productivity,
reduction in water consumption and nutrient cycling of inorganic
nitrogen by bacteria (Avnimelech, 2012; Azim & Little, 2008; Luo
* Corresponding author. 999 Huchenghuan Road, Shanghai 201306, China.
E-mail address: gzhluo@shou.edu.cn (G. Luo).
The effects of salinity on fish growth have been studied exten-
sively (Tseng & Hwang, 2008) and tilapia is one of the common
species that grows well in brackish water ponds (Al-Harbit &
Uddin, 2005). A salinity range from 10 to 20 is optimal for their
growth (Romana-Eguia & Eguia, 1999; Suresh & Kwei Lin, 1992). In
China where a large body of brackish water is available for aqua-
culture due to its long coastline tilapia culture is popular (FFAMA,
2015). There are a numerous studies on the growth and physio-
logical response of tilapia to salinity (Kammerer, Cechjr, & Kültz,
2010). And Nile tilapia (O. niloticus) are intolerant to saline levels
<18 (Hwang, Sun, & Wu, 1989; Velan, Hulata, Ron, & Cnaani, 2011;
Watanabe, Kuo, & Huang, 1985).
A “Genetically Improved Farm Tilapia” (GIFT, Oreochromis nilo-
ticus) tolerant to freshwater has played an important role in the
economic development of south China. In the present study, a 150-
d experiment was conducted with GIFT (Oreochromis niloticus), to
investigate the production efficiency, inorganic nitrogen dynamics
and bacteria community in indoor BFT systems containing water
with salinity 0 (fresh water), 10, or 20.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aaf.2017.10.002
2468-550X/© 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Shanghai Ocean University. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/).
 G. Luo et al. / Aquaculture and Fisheries 2 (2017) 220e226
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Experimental facilities
The experiment was carried out in nine indoor fiberglass tanks
(diameter of 110 cm, high of 90 cm, 30 cm high for cone, 0.6 m3
working volume). The tanks and circuit has previously been
described in the Zhang, Luo, Tan, Liu, and Hou (2016). A 0.138 kw
compressed air roots blower was placed in each tank to maintain
bioflocs in suspension. Three experimental groups in triplicate
tanks were reared in salinity 0 (S-0), salinity 10 (S-10) and salinity
20 (S-20).
2.2. Fish stocking management
The rearing tanks were continuously aerated to maintain the
dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration at 5 mg/L in each tank. The pH
was maintained between 6.5 and 7.5 using NaHCO3 and the tem-
perature ranged from 22 to 30  C. The water level in tanks was
maintained by daily addition of water to compensate for bioflocs
removal, sampling and evaporation loss.
Mixed sex GIFTs were obtained from a commercial fish farm
(Guangzhou, Guangdong, China). One hundred tilapia
(15.62 ± 1.03 g/fish) were stocked at an initial density of 2.6 kg/m3.
The fish were fed a compound diet (Zhangzhou Youan Special Feed
Co., Ltd., Fujian, China), which contained 30% crude protein. Based
on the observations of the feeding behavior of the fish during
acclimation to the BFT system, the feeding rate was fixed at 2.0% of
the stocking biomass. The daily feed was split into two equal rations
and given at 08:30 and 18:00. Glucose was added to the BFT tanks
at a rate of 50% of the feed level to maintain an optimum C/N ratio
(w/w) for BFT progress (Gao, Shan, Zhang, Bao, & Ma, 2012). Bioflocs
were periodically removed from the tanks to maintain the total
suspended solids (TSS) at less than 500 mg/L. The experiment was
conducted over a period of 150 d.
2.3. Methods of determining experimental parameters
2.3.1. Water quality parameters
The DO, pH and temperature were measured daily using a YSI-
556 m (YSI Incorporated, Yellow Springs, OH, USA). The TSS, total
ammonium nitrogen (NHþ 
4 -N), nitrite-nitrogen (NO2 -N), nitrate-
nitrogen (NO 3 -N), flocs volume in 5 min(FV-5) and flocs volume
index (FVI) were analyzed using a standard method (SEPA, 2004)
every 5 d. The dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was measured daily
using a total organic carbon analyzer (TOC-V CPH; Shimadzu Sei-
sakusho, Japan).
2.3.2. Blood sampling
At the end of the experiment (150 d), the fish were starved for
24 h before blood sampling. Three fish were randomly netted from
each tank and immediately anesthetized with 2-phenoxyethanol
(1:300 v/v) and when they reached stage V of anesthesia (eg.
2e3 min), they were killed by a blow to the back head. Blood was
collected from the caudal vein within 1 min using a 1 mL syringe
with a 22 G  1 1/200 needle. Each blood sample was placed in a 1.5
mL non-heparinized Eppendorf tube on ice and allowed to clot and
then centrifuged at 4000 rpm for 10 min at 4  C. The serum was
collected, divided into several aliquots and stored at 20  C until
analyses on the following day.
2.3.3. Biochemical composition of the bioflocs and fish muscle
Every 30 d, the biofloc produced in BFT tanks were collected,
settled and concentrated and then were dried in an oven at 60  C to
constant weight and proximate analysis performed to determine
221
biofloc composition. The content of crude protein (CP) and crude
lipid (CL) of biofloc and fish muscle were performed using standard
methods GB/T6432-94 and GB/T6433-94.
2.3.4. Fish growth parameters
After the start of the biofloc experiment, every 15 d, 10 fishes
were harvested from each tank and the body weight recorded. The
body weight and food intake (in grams) were used to determine the
following growth parameters:
Survival rate (%) ¼ 100 (Nf e Ni)/Ni,
Specific growth rate (SGR, %) ¼ [(lnW2 e lnW1)/(t2 e t1)]  100%,
Feed conversion ratio (FCR, kg/kg) ¼ feed supply (kg)/fish biomass
increase (kg),
Total weight gained (kg/m3) ¼ (W2 e W1)/0.5.
where W1 and W2 are the weights at times t1 and t2 the initial and
sampling day of the experiment. “F” is the weight of total feed
intake per tank (g), Ni and Nf are the initial and final number of fish
in the tanks.
2.3.5. Bacteria community analysis
At the end of the experiment, three biofloc samples were
collected from the three treatments for Illumina MiSeq sequence
analysis of the microbiome. DNA was extracted from the biofilm
samples using a Qubit 2.0 DNA Kit and the concentrations were
determined by Sangon Biotech Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China). PCR with
16S primers for bacteria and then sequencing to determine phylum.
The polymerase chain reaction products were determined accord-
ing to the standard protocols and software (Data collection soft-
ware, Illumina). Sequenced PCR products were analyzed at the
phylum and genus level and clustered into operational taxonomic
units (OTUs) by setting a 0.03 distance limit (equivalent to 97%
similarity) using the UCLUST v1.1.579. The Shannon index, Chao 1
index, and abundance-based coverage estimator (ACE) indices were
calculated to compare the microbial diversity and richness between
the biofloc samples collected from the experimental tanks. Se-
quences were phylogenetically assigned to taxonomic classifica-
tions using an RDP classifier Bayesian Algorithm (http://rdp.cme.
msu.edu/). Raw sequencing data obtained from this study were
deposited in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (http://www.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/sra/) with the following Database ID: SRP073701.
2.4. Statistical analysis
SPSS 16.0 for Windows was used to perform the statistical
analysis. The difference was considered significant at P < 0.05. One-
way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to evaluate growth,
serum parameters, and parameters of bioflocs in each experimental
group.
3. Results
3.1. Water quality parameters
NHþ 
4 -N and NO2 -N accumulated significantly in all tanks during
the start-up period but NHþ 4 -N decreased to the lowest concen-
trations at 55 d for all experimental groups (Fig. 1). The peak of TAN
in the S-10 group was higher (50 mg/L) than that of S-0 and S-20.
The appearance of NO 2 -N was significantly different between the
three groups. The end of the start-up period is considered to
correspond to a decrease to 0.5 mg/L of NO 2 -N and this occurred at
222 G. Luo et al. / Aquaculture and Fisheries 2 (2017) 220e226
Fig. 1. The total ammonium nitrogen (TAN) (a), nitrite-N (NO 2 -N)(b) and nitrate-N
(NO3 -N) (c) in indoor BFT systems operating at salinity 0 (S-0), salinity 10(S-10), and
salinity 20 (S-20).
50 d for S-0, 60 d for S-10 and 80 d for S-20. From 100 d, NO
3 -N did
not accumulate and stayed at low levels until the end of the
experiment.
3.2. Bioflocs quality parameters
The biofloc development in terms of TSS, FV-5 and FVI over 150
d is presented in Fig. 2. From the beginning to 70 d, TSS levels in all
the three groups increased from 20 mg/L to 500 mg/L, and stayed
lower than 600 mg/L up until the end of the experiment. No reports
exist about suitable TSS levels for tilapia in BFT aquaculture system
and is related to stocking densities and aeration conditions. FV-5
increased throughout the experimental period. FV-5 in the S-
0 group was slightly higher than that of S-10 and S-20. From 70 d to
the end of the experiment, the FV-5 of the S-20 group was signif-
icantly lower than S-10 and S-20. The result of FVI changed with the
salinity was similar. The settlement of the bioflocs was worse with
increasing salinities.
The average crude protein content of the bioflocs from the three
Fig. 2. Total suspended solid (TSS)(a), flocs volume in 5 min FV-5 (b), flocs volume
index (FVI) (c) in indoor BFT systems operating at salinity 0 (S-0), salinity 10(S-10), and
salinity 20 (S-20).
experimental groups ranged from 25% to 37% (on a dry-matter
basis) (Fig. 3-a). The crude protein content of the bioflocs protein
in the S-10 group fluctuated while the protein content was stable in
the S-0 and S-20 groups. The crude protein and lipid content of the
S-10 group was slightly higher than that of S-0 and S-20. The crude
lipid content of bioflocs ranged from 1.8% to 2.24% dry matter (DM)
(Fig. 3-b).
3.3. Bacteria community
High-throughput sequencing of the bioflocs community in the
present study after removal of low quality sequences and chimeras,
gave 10,000 high quality reads per experimental group with an
average length of 400 bp. As shown in Table 1, the ACE index and
Chao1 index of S-10 and S-20 was higher than that of S-0. No
obvious significant difference in sequence number or OTUs were
identified between the three groups. The Shannon index of each
group ranged from 4.5 to 5.0, representing high Alpha diversity. The
two dominant phylum in the bioflocs were Bacteroidetes with an
abundance of 37% for S-0, 35% for S-10 and 37% for S-20, Proteo-
bacteria with 37% for S-0, 44% for S-10 and 33% for S-20 (Fig. 4).
Other lower abundance phylum included Fusobacteria (12% for S-0,
 G. Luo et al. / Aquaculture and Fisheries 2 (2017) 220e226 223

is important.
Fish yield parameters are listed in Table 3. No significant dif-
ferences were found in survival rate, final weight, and SGR between
the three groups. The weight of the fish in the S-20 group was slight
higher than that of S-0 and S-10. The food conversion rate (FCR) of
the S-20 group, 1.46 ± 0.03, was 4% higher than that of S-0 and S-10.
Stocking biomass was 2.06 ± 0.33 kg/m3 in all tanks initially, and
reached 34.79 for S-0, 35.83 for S-10 and 32.6 kg/m3 for S-20. Based
on the results of the present study it was extrapolated that the GIFT
tilapia yields in the BFT system could reach 73 and 82 kg/m3 per
year.

3.5. Body composition of fish

The crude protein content of the dorsal muscle of S-10 GIFT

tilapia was slightly higher than that of S-0 and S-20 after 75 days in
the BFT system. No significant differences were observed in the
crude protein content (CP) of GIFT tilapia dorsal muscle on 150 d, at
the end of the experiment (Table 4). Significant differences in the
crude lipid content was observed between the three experimental
groups and the CF content of the dorsal muscle at the end of
experiment was lower than at 75 d.

3.6. Blood parameters

Fig. 3. Crude protein (CP) content (a) and crude lipid (CF) content (b) of bioflocs at No significant differences were found in total protein (TP), al-
150 d after the start of the experiment in indoor BFT systems operating at salinity 0 (S-
bumin (ALB), glucose (GLU), urea, triglycerides (TG) and total cal-
0), salinity 10(S-10), and salinity 20 (S-20).
cium (TC) in blood serum of the three experimental groups.
Significant differences between the experimental groups were
Table 1 observed in plasma aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and plasma
Summary of sequencing data for bioflocs in the three groups. alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (Table 5). The results indicate that
S-0 S-10 S-20 the salinity of the BFT system was a stress for the GIFT tilapia and
this presumably modified energy consumption and led to the
Sequencing number 20408 21190 20282
Operational taxonomic units (OTUs) 1257 1419 1339 growth differences detected.
Shannon indexa 4.70 a 5.00 b 4.51 ac
ACE index 2501 a 4375 b 4140 b 4. Discussion
Chao1 index 2516 a 2900 b 2818 b
Coverage 0.97 0.96 0.96
The GIFT tilapia had good adaptability to the water condition. In
Notes: Values in the same row with different superscript letters are significantly order to evaluate the potential of a new biofloc start-up method,
different (P < 0.05).
they were not cultivated in advance in the current experiment
unlike our previous studies (Zhang et al., 2016). The dynamics of
4% for 4% and 9% for S-20), Verrucomicrobia (4% for S-0, 4% for S-10, NHþ  
4 -N, NO2 -N and NO3 -N were similar with the autotrophic

and 7% for S-20) and Planctomycetes (2% for S-0, 6% for S-10 and 2% nitrification progress, which occurs commonly in BFT systems
for S-20). (Avnimelech, 2012; Azim & Little, 2008; Hargreaves, 2013). The
The results for core genera (abundance above 1%) identified on syndromes of NHþ  
4 -N, NO2 -N and NO3 -N suggested that the

bioflocs by pyrosequencing of 16S DNA is indicated in Table 2. The
most dominant genera in the three experimental groups were
different and Cetobacterium represented 12% of sequences for S-0,
Terrimonas represented 13% of the sequences for S-10 and Lewinella
represented 24% of the sequences for S-20. The second most
dominant genera for S-0 was Segetibacter, for S-10 was Dokdonella,
and for S-20 was Enhygromyxa. The results suggest that salinity has
a significant effect at the genera level of microorganisms in bioflocs
aquaculture systems.
3.4. Fish growth
The growth of the GIFT in the current experiment system was
split into three periods, 1e60 d for period I, 60e105 d for period II,
and 105e150 d for period III (Fig. 5). The growth speed increased
with the length of the experiment and this may be partly explained
by the growth depressing effect of the stress of the high concen-
trations of TAN, NO 
2 -N, and NO3 -N in the start-up period. The
results indicate that developing the biofloc system before stocking
assimilation of NHþ 4 -N and NO
3 -N was dominant in the experi-
mental systems (Ebeling, Timmons, & Bisogni, 2006).
The average crude protein content of the bioflocs from the three
experimental groups is in common with what was reported in
other studies in fresh water or saline water (Ju et al., 2008;
Vanstechelman, 2008) that also indicated the suitability of BFT
for tilapia rearing (Chou and Shiau, 1996; Jauncey, 2000). A study on
bio-flocs production by manipulating the C/N ratio of the feed also
reported that the nutritional quality of bioflocs varied significantly
between sampling points (Azim, Little, & Bron, 2007). The crude
lipid content is lower than required by tilapia (Chou and Shiau,
1996). It has been suggested that one of the major osmoregula-
tory responses to salt in bacteria is the alteration of the membrane
lipid composition (Russell & Nichols, 1999). Ekasari, Crab, and
Verstraete (2010) found that there was no significant difference
in the crude protein content of bioflocs among the salinity 0 and
salinity 30 groups, with a range of 18%e42%. The DM content is
similar to other studies where it varied from 2% to 2.5% in fresh-
water (Azim et al., 2007) and 1.2%e2.5% DM in marine water (Ju
et al., 2008).
224 G. Luo et al. / Aquaculture and Fisheries 2 (2017) 220e226

other
(a)
SR1 S-0
S-10
Acidobacteria S-30
TM7
Actinobacteria
unclassified
Planctomycetes
Verrucomicrobia
Fusobacteria
Bacteroidetes
Proteobacteria

0 10 20 30 40
Frequency of phylum (%)

other
Ferruginibacter
S-0
Aequorivita S-10
Roseivirga (b) S-30

Segetibacter
Dokdonella
Enhygromyxa
Terrimonas
Lewinella
unclassified
Cetobacterium

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Frequency of genus (%)

Fig. 4. Abundance of bacteria at the levels of phylum (a) and genus (b) on 150 d after the start of the experiment in indoor BFT systems operating at salinity 0 (S-0), salinity 10(S-10),
and salinity 20 (S-20).

Table 2
Bacteria community in genus level for the three groups.

S-0 S-10 S-20

Genus Abundance(%) Genus Abundance(%) Genus Abundance(%)

1 Cetobacterium 12.43 Terrimonas 13.48 Lewinella 24.12

2 Segetibacter 10.69 Dokdonella 11.29 Enhygromyxa 13.17
3 Ferruginibacter 8.87 Aequorivita 10.09 Cetobacterium 9.21
4 unclassified 7.64 unclassified 9.28 unclassified 8.89
5 Sphingomonas 7.52 Devosia 5.22 Roseivirga 7.87
6 Dongia 5.75 Cetobacterium 4.24 Haloferula 4.97
7 Spirosoma 4.04 Haloferula 3.85 Sneathiella 3.05
8 Terrimonas 2.97 Perlucidibaca 3.39 TM7generaincertae sedis 2.44
9 Bosea 2.7 Phycisphaera 2.84 Emticicia 1.71
10 Kaistia 2.55 Roseivirga 2.44 Novispirillum 1.52
11 Subdivision3_genera_incertaesedis 2.48 Flavobacterium 2.37 Thalassobaculum 1.32
12 Flavobacterium 2.44 Dongia 1.85 Opitutus 1.22
13 Blastochloris 2.1 Rhizobium 1.63 Planctomyces 1.21
14 Rudaea 1.67 SR1 genera incertaesedis 1.59 Fodinicurvata 1.09
15 Devosia 1.64 Methylibium 1.56 Wandonia 1.09
16 Lysobacter 1.58 Planctomyces 1.2 Sphingopyxis 1
17 Mucilaginibacter 1.42 Lewinella 1.17
18 Sediminibacterium 1.1 Methylophilus 1.16
19 Ornithinibacter 1.07
20 Asticcacaulis 1.04
 G. Luo et al. / Aquaculture and Fisheries 2 (2017) 220e226 225

Table 5
Blood biochemical parameters of tilapia on different salinity at the end of 150
d experiment.

S-0 S-10 S-20

TP (mmol/L) 26.3 ± 2.35 30.62 ± 7.02 28.94 ± 6.77

ALB (mmol/L) 10.79 ± 1.8 11.89 ± 3 11.06 ± 2.26
GLU (mmol/L) 3.04 ± 0.54 2.74 ± 1.27 3.46 ± 1.45
UREA (mmol/L) 0.9 ± 0.3 1.16 ± 0.62 1.4 ± 0.63
TG (mmol/L) 3.6 ± 2.71 3.12 ± 1.92 1.68 ± 0.76
TC (mmol/L) 3.17 ± 0.4 3.72 ± 1.28 2.99 ± 0.5
AST (U/L) 35.21 ± 5.6 b 45.43 ± 10.31 a
48.5 ± 9.81 a
ALT (U/L) 31.67 ± 12.93 27.18 ± 6.36 26.31 ± 8.51
a b
ALP (U/L) 79.93 ± 15.79 65.81 ± 15.68 54.8 ± 10.07 b

Notes: Values in the same row with different superscript letters are significantly
different (P < 0.05).

Fig. 5. Fish fresh weight during the experimental period in indoor BFT systems
operating at salinity 0 (S-0), salinity 10(S-10), and salinity 20 (S-20).
Studies of the bacterial community of bioflocs in aquaculture
system are scarce. Wei, Liao, and Wang (2016) reported the effect of
external carbohydrates on the microbial community of bioflocs
only at the phylum level. The microbial community of BFT system
are under similar physical conditions to microbial communities of
activated sludge that are affected by nutrient input, temperature,
salinity, power input, type of COD, and DO levels (De Schryver &
Verstraete, 2009; Yan, Subramanian, Surampalli, Narasiah, &
Tyagi, 2007). Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria have previously
been shown to be the prominent phylum in waste treatment
(Daims, Brühl, Amann, Schleifer, & Wagner, 1999) and biofloc
aquaculture system (Wei et al., 2016; Martins et al., 2013). The same
result was found in the current experiment.
The FCR in the current experiment was in the range described
previously for tilapia (Azim and Little, 2008; Crab et al., 2010).
However, The FCR in the current experiment was much lower than
that obtained for GIFT tilapia in our previous studies of Biofloc
systems (Luo et al., 2014; Zhang et al., 2016). The stocking biomass
was higher than the previous reported densities of 10e28 kg/m3 in
indoor or outdoor BFT systems (Azim & Little, 2008). The yield
value was close to the yields obtained for tilapia cultured at com-
mercial scale RASs or cage culture of tilapia (Timmons, Ebeling, &
Center, 2010; Garcia et al., 2014), and higher than the yield of
11.8e22.8 t/ha per year reported for integrated systems (Saber,
Fatma, Fayza, van der, & Huub, 2007). However, the results with
GIFT tilapia in the present study was lower than those obtained
in our previous studies (Luo et al., 2014; Zhang et al., 2016). The
reason for the discrepancy in the yield between our previous and
present study may be related to the absence of pre-stocking
development of the bioflocs system in this study. The CP and CF
content of the GIFT tilapia in the current experiment was the same
as we obtained in our previous studies (Luo et al., 2014; Zhang et al.,
2016).
5. Conclusion
The survival rates of rearing GIFT tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)
in indoor bioflocs technology (BFT) systems under S-0, S-10, and
S-20 was above 95%. The final fish biomass of S-10 was significantly
higher than that at S-0 and S-20. There was no significant difference
in the CP content of the back muscles in the three experimental
groups. No significant difference in blood parameters, except for
aspartate aminotransferase and alkaline phosphatase occurred
between the three experimental groups. Differences in salinity of
the BFT system caused a significant difference at the genus level

Table 3
Growth performance and feed utilization of tilapia in indoor bioflocs technology system of different salinity conditions.

Parameters S-0 S-10 S-20

Initial weight (g/fish) 15.62 ± 1.03 15.62 ± 1.03 15.62 ± 1.03

Initial stocking density (kg/m3) 2.06 ± 0.33
Final weight (g/fish) 228.49 ± 33.14 230.32 ± 24.35 218.97 ± 35.13
Survival rate (%) 97 ± 3 99 ± 1 95 ± 3
Final stocking density (kg/m3) 34.79 ± 1.33 ab 35.83 ± 1.08 a 32.6 ± 1.04 b
Specific growth rate (%/d) 1.78 ± 0.1 1.79 ± 0.07 1.75 ± 0.1
Total weight gain (kg/m3) 32.73 ± 0.21 33.51 ± 0.78 30.61 ± 0.89
Food conversion rate (kg/kg) 1.4 ± 0.02 b 1.39 ± 0.03 b 1.46 ± 0.03 a
Crude protein content of the fish back muscle (%) 88.35 ± 0.67 88.8 ± 1.65 88.48 ± 1.93
Crude protein lipid of the fish back muscle (%) 6.85 ± 0.3 a 5.72 ± 0.24 b 4.88 ± 0.28 c

Notes: Each value represents mean ± S. D (n ¼ 9). Values in the same row with different superscript letters are significantly different (P < 0.05).

Table 4
The muscle's nutrition content of fish farming on 75 and 150 d.

Parameters Sampling Time (d) S-0 S-10 S-20

Crude protein content (%) 75 85.6 ± 0.9 b 87.31 ± 0.66 a 85.21 ± 0.8 b
150 88.35 ± 0.67 88.8 ± 1.65 88.48 ± 1.93
Crude lipid content 75 7.71 ± 0.33 a 7.2 ± 0.38 b 6.82 ± 0.33 b
150 6.85 ± 0.3 a 5.72 ± 0.24 b 4.88 ± 0.28 c

Notes: Values in the same row with different superscript letters are significantly different (P < 0.05).
226 G. Luo et al. / Aquaculture and Fisheries 2 (2017) 220e226
in the abundance of microorganisms, although the genus Ceto-
bacterium was the domain bacteria for the three groups.
Acknowledgement
This study was funded by the Shanghai Science and Technology
Commission Project (16DZ2281200).
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