Growth of Clarias gariepinus and Capsicum chinense in Raft Aquaponics System with External Wastes Solids Removal Devices

The absence of wasteswater settling basin for solid wastes removal in most aquaponics system results in clogging of plant roots and wastes in holding tanks thus negatively affecting growth of cultured fauna and flora. Findings of a 102 days study which assessed the effects of different sedimentation devices and media in the growth of fish and pepper in raft aquaponics system are discussed in this article. The African catfish Clarias gariepinus juveniles of average weight 4.79g were stocked and cultured with Habanero pepper, Capsicum chinense plants transplanted after 32 days from the nursery bed in raft aquaponics system with separate wastes settling basins of different sedimentation devices (foam, FSM; palm kernel shell, PKSM and quiescence- sump QSM, and which serves as the control). Fish were fed twice a day at 5% body weight and parameters such as mean weight gain (MWG), feed conversation ratio (FCR), survival rate (SR), were monitored for Clarias gariepinus while plant height (PH), stem girth (SG), number of leaves (NL), leave area (LA) were measured for Habanero pepper. The mean weight gain observed for Clarias gariepinus for QSM, FSM and PKSM were, 17.45±4.23, 16.18±3.81 and 17.87±3.23 with FCR values of 1.08±0.19, 1.22±0.30 and 0.85±0.04 and SR of 95.21±6.15, 85.86±5.20 and 99.65±7.48 respectively. Mean values for C. chinense plant height ranged from 17.17±1.53 to 27.25±6.48. Palm kernel shell serves as the most effective sedimentation media for better growth performance of African Catfish and habanero pepper.