The Water Hyacinth Reduces the Production Costs of Fish Feed during the Small-scale Tilapia Culture in Southern of Sinaloa, Mexico

Tilapia culture is increasing such in Mexico as in other countries of world; however, one of main problem is the food cost; therefore, the aim this work was to use water hyacinth as a complement in tilapia feeding, and thus reduce production cost. Dried water hyacinth added with cane molasses, was fermented using Lactobacillus acidophilus. The fermented product was mixed with commercial feed and cornmeal, at 30-60-10 percent respectively. The mixture was extruded and dried to be used as tilapia feed. Tilapia juveniles were placed in plastic ponds; once tilapias reached 24-26 g, were divided in two groups; The experimental group was transferred to a 4,678-liter pond while the control group was distributed in three 100-liter ponds. The experimental group was fed with food prepared with water hyacinth, while control group with commercial food. To know the tilapias growth of each groups, the weight gain of both groups, was recorded every 2 weeks; also to check the water state, its physicochemical parameters were recorded. At end of 9 biweeklies, the experiment was stopped, and the tilapia growth of both groups compared, using a von Bertalanffy modified equation to calculate the growth, based on the weight increase. Results indicated that tilapia growth rate fed with water hyacinth-supplemented feed, was 7.5% higher than tilapia fed with commercial feed, at p=0.05. Another important point, is that feed cost prepared with water hyacinth was 30% lower than commercial food. This results demonstrate that tilapia farming to small and medium-scale, can be developed in southern Sinaloa, which will create jobs for inhabitants of small communities, strengthening the family economy and the social fabric.