الملخص الإنجليزي
The increased urgency towards economic diversification and self-sufficiency has brought back the marine and fisheries sector of the Sultanate of Oman into the limelight. With advances in technology, there have also been parallel developments in aquaculture including aquaponics. In order to address issues such as water shortage, the type of plant and animal species that can be grown and the financial feasibility of aquaponics considering the environmental conditions in Oman need to be studied. The main objective of the research was to assess the technical and financial feasibility of growing high-value species in an aquaponic system in a greenhouse. The two specific objectives are: 1) To determine the most suitable plant species in combination with koi carp or tilapia within an aquaponic system in a greenhouse and 2) To analyse the costs and benefits of such aquaponic system in a greenhouse setting.
Two experiments were designed. The first experiment tested growing tilapia with high-value plants (spinach, cabbage and lettuce) in floating versus media-based growing system. The duration of the experiment was three months. The second experiment was to compare the growth of tilapia versus koi carp in combination with strawberry and mint in floating versus media-based growing system. The duration of the experiment was four months. The fish were fed with 2mm sinking pellets at around 5% of their average body weight per day and given in 2-3 rations per day. The weight and length of the fish were measured every month. Growth of plants in terms of height and number of fruits in the case of strawberry and number of stems in the case of mint was determined every month and the total number of surviving plants were also counted. Statistical tools such as ANOVA, t-test and Tukey?s test were used to analyse variables, such as weight, length and mortalities of species.
