The utilization of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) for the development of sludge worm (Tubifex sp.) cultivation

Abstract

Sludge worms (Tubifex sp.) is one of the important components of fish cultures. Sludge worms contain high protein as nutrition for fish foods. The worm grows fast and relatively smaller size that is suitable with the small size of the fish mouth. Intensification of sludge worm production through cultivation needs to be done in order to meet the growing needs of fish food. Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is a weed that lends the ecosystem and is not utilized in the community. In fact, water hyacinth has a high protein content to become feed nutrition. This research supports the conversion of water hyacinth into optimal cultivation media. is the experimental design used four media variations namely treatment-I, treatment-II and treatment-III. Fermentation was used to breakdown the fibre of water hyacinth. The water system used a recirculation system. The parameters tested are water quality, water flow rate & dissolved oxygen. The pH showed range from 7.0-7.6. DO showed range from 1.2−1.4 mg/L. The temperature showed range 25.6-28.2 °C.