Aquaponics is an important technique that depends entirely on fish feed, which is expensive and makes up to 60% of total variable costs. Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) meal is one of the alternatives to fishmeal in aquaponics system. To promote the use of sustainable alternative aquaculture feed to fish meal, this study sought to investigate the effect of replacing fish meal with BSFL meal on African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) performance (survival, growth) and water quality in aquaponics. The study used the Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). A total of 135 catfish fingerlings were stocked in three replicates in nine water barrels of 100 liters each (filled with 60 liters of water) and fed 2 times a day for 56 days. For acclimatization, the fingerlings were fed commercial feed for two weeks. Water was cycled through the hydroponic media grow bed using an automatic timer for 15 minutes every hour during the day and night. Fish meal was replaced with black soldier fly larvae meal at 0% (BSFL0), 30% (BSFL30), and 50% (BSFL50). One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the data using John's Macintosh Project, JMP 16 software. The water parameter results showed that black soldier fly larvae meal had no significant (p>0.05) effect on pH, electrical conductivity, ammonium, nitrite, and nitrate. The diet types had no significant (p>0.05) effect on survival, weight gain, specific growth rate, feed conversion ratio, feed intake and length gain. This study implies that 30 and 50% of fishmeal can successfully be replaced with black soldier fly larvae meal in aquaponics without affecting water quality and catfish growth performance. Hence, the use of black soldier fly larvae meal should be promoted to increase African catfish production in aquaponics.

Keywords: Aquaponics, hydroponics, aquaculture, Hermetia illucens, Clarias gariepinus, fishmeal.