EFFECT OF LIGHT, FISH BIOMASS AND NATURAL ANTIFOULING AGENTS ON OCCURRENCE AND DIVERSITY OF MARINE MACRO-FOULING IN SILVER POMPANO CAGE CULTURE

*Salum S. Hamed1,2, Narriman S. Jiddawi1, Bwathondi, P.O.J
1. University of Dar es Salaam, Institute of Marine Sciences P.O. Box 668 Zanzibar, Tanzania
2. University of Dodoma, College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics P.O.Box 259, Dodoma, Tanzania
*Corresponding author: Salum S. Hamed
Email salumhus@gmail.com +255719545564

The effects of light, fish stocked biomass and effectiveness of sifa and neem extracts on occurrence and diversity of marine macro-fouling in cage culture in Tanzania coastal water were investigated. A total number of 26 species and multispecies categories of fouling organisms were identified with total species richness ranging from 5 to 19 species per sampling time. The stocking biomass, sampling duration and antifouling extracts had a significantly effects on the fouling biomass and diversity. After 90 days of immersion, the antifouling efficiencies decreased significantly on both sifa and neem exracts. And the species reaches and percentage cover of biofouling community had reached an equal distribution on both treatments and control nets. However, dry weight of mollusca were signignificanly higher than that of algae and crustaceans for both treatments (12.6 ± 3.2, 13.8 ± 1.6 and 11.2 ± 2.1) sifa, neem, and control nets panels respectively. The results of this study may contribute to the understanding on the effect of cage stocking biomass and optimisation of natural extracts antifouling for treatments of aquaculture nets.

Keywords: Trachinotus blochii, light, antifouling, marine cage culture