Aquaculture Sciences

Aquaculture Sciences

Biology of Chironomus riparius in the drinking water supply of Sanandaj to control its population

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Sorour Hemmati 1
Habibollah Mohammadi 1
Hamed Ghobari 2
Armin Namayandeh 3
Edris Ghaderi 1
1 Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran.
2 Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran.
3 Department of Environmental and Life Sciences, Trent University, Ontario, Canada.
Abstract
The present study was conducted to investigate the biological characteristics of C. riparius to control chironomids in wastewater treatment plants and for mass culture. Larvae of C. riparius were reared under standard conditions until the completion of the C. riparius life cycle. To examine the effect of temperature, treatments at 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30°C were tested. The results showed that the minimum threshold temperature for C. riparius growth was 4°C, the maximum was 25°C, and larval growth decreased at 30°C. The 25°C treatment recorded the highest daily growth rate and biomass at 0.38±0.07. However, the optimal temperature for both growth and survival during the development of the C. riparius life cycle was 18.7°C. Degree-day values for larval instars 1, 2, 3, and 4 were 132± 106, 248±86, 397±170, and 528±153 day-degrees at 17/18°C, respectively, with 498±235 day-degrees recorded for pupation. In the second phase of the experiment, based on the results of the first phase, a temperature of 25°C was selected to determine the best diet for growth and rearing. Results from rearing C. riparius larvae on 7 food diets (chicken manure, pigeon manure, sheep manure, egg yolk, fish food, yeast, skim milk powder) plus a control showed significant differences in growth rates among the dietary treatments (P≤0.05), with the highest rate in the fish food treatment and the lowest in the skim milk powder treatment. Based on the results for growth performance and economic feasibility of supply, the use of sheep and chicken manure treatments is recommended for rearing.
Keywords
Biology
Drinking water supply
Optimal temperature
Biomass
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Aquaculture Sciences
Volume 13, Issue 2
October 2025
Pages 79-90