Water quality and immune function of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus( fingerlings under the influence of different times of carbohydrate addition in a limited water exchange system

In current study, the effect of different times of molasses addition on water quality and immune performance of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus( mucus in biofloc system with limited water exchange was investigated. Nile tilapia with an average weight of 1.53 g was cultured in fiberglass tanks (circular cross section) with a volume of 130 liters of water at a density of one fish per liter for 37 days. Five experimental groups were considered including a control (without biofloc) group without carbonaceous substance addition and four biofloc treatments with molasses added daily (biofloc 1), once every two days (biofloc 2), once every three days (biofloc 3) and once every four days (biofloc 4). 2.5 ml/l microbial mass was added as a starter to biofloc treatments. Also, molasses carbonaceous material (65% of the input feed) was used to adjust the carbon to nitrogen ratio. According to the results, water quality in biofloc treatments showed that the lowest amount of total ammonia nitrogen (0.23 mg/l) and the highest amount of nitrate (25.5 mg/l) were obtained in biofloc 1 treatment (daily molasses addition), that showed a significant difference with other treatments (p<0.05). Based on the results of immune function of tilapia mucus, the lowest amount of total immunoglobulin (43.66 mg/100 ml) and lysozyme activity (17.33 ml/min) were observed in the control (without biofloc) group (p<0.05). Generally, the current research showed that the water quality in the biofloc system is improved with the addition of molasses on a daily basis and also the immune function of Nile tilapia mucus in biofloc system is more active than the normal system without microbial floc.