Photos’ credit: Walid Salah El Din (Egypt)
Review: Walid Salah El Din and Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the website)
The inserted photos have been taken in a commercial aquaculture project in Tangier region, Morocco. The area dedicated for fish farming is about 28 hectares, on which tilapia and crayfish are farmed. The farm depends on the collection of water from rainfall and wells as the main water sources.
In regard to tilapia, Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) is the species used in the farm. Because temperature is relatively cold for extended period of time, most of production activities take place under greenhouses using closed system technology. In such intensive and closed system, the production reaches about 50 kg/m3 after a growing season of eight months. Feed used throughout various production stages is produced in the farm. The protein content of produced feed varies from 40%, 32%, 30%, and then 25% and this meets the nutritional requirements of different life stages. The production capacity of feed mill is about 300 tons/year. In one of the photos, the hatchery incubators are seen indicating that tilapia seeds are produced on the farm.
The production of about 600-g tilapia allow the filleting of a portion of the production (the largest), while the remaining harvest are sold as whole after being gutted.
