Academy of Agriculture Journal

Fish distresses are commonly reported from the fish cultured activity. Fish distress is occurred when fish cannot adapt to stress or suffering to their surrounding environment. This problem caused by several reason i.e. fish disease which include parasitology, bacteriology, virology and environmental stress. In the natural environment, most of the cases are rise from the human exploitation i.e: coastal development, sand mining, mangrove logging etc. Most of the fish distresses have a relatively caused by low tolerance of variations in environmental conditions and their death is often a potent indicator of problems in their environment. In this study, total of 30 fishes from three sampling sites along the Tebrau Straits (1°27'09.3"N 103°46'00.3"E) were collected for this study. Eight type of fish species were weighed and measured respectively. The objective of this study are to determine the prevalence and mean intensity of the parasites. Prevalence of four phylum of parasites with six genus have been analyses which categorized in two group such as ectoparasites; i) protozoan (7%), ii) plathyhelminthes (10%), iii) parasitic crustacean, i.e; Ergasilus sp. (0.1%); Caligus sp. (0.5%); Pseudolernanthropus sp. (0.2%); Hatschekia sp. (0.2%) and one type of endoparasite which is nematode (0.7%). The parasites found during this study were recorded and the data were summarized in the results.

Edible pigments can be extracted from seaweeds which can be used as natural food coloring agent due to substitute hazards in artificial (synthetic) food coloring. Chlorophyll, carotenoid, and phycobiliproteins are major photosynthetic pigments presence in microalgae. Extraction of high quality natural food coloring and efficient impact of these coloring on chemical, microbial and sensory quality of gel dessert were evaluated. The main objectives of the present study Chlorophyll and carotenoids were extracted from Ulva lactuca and Sargussum wightti using acetone, methanol and water as solvents while and pycobiliprotein was obtained from Gracilaria verrucosa grinding with ice cold potassium phosphate buffer. The stability, sensory, microbial and nutritional quality was measured after application of natural colors to jell dessert. The chlorophyll, carotenoid and crude phycoerythin yielded 45%, 31% and 33% respectively. These pigments have a shelf life more than six months in 5% citric acid at ambient temperatures. The color attributes of the jelly dessert prepared using natural colors retain more than thirty days at room temperature 30% loss whereas artificial colors were retained in similar amount. Agar jelly prepared using natural food colors had significantly higher concentrations of calcium (120 mg/l) and Potassium (550mg/l) when compared to jelly prepared using artificial colors. Natural food colors in jelly resulted in high Sodium content (1200mg/l) and high magnesium content (580 mg/l) when compared to jelly prepared using artificial colors. The protein content (10.2-12%), carbohydrate (10.8-12.3%) and fat contents (1.16-1.93%) in the jelly dessert prepared using natural food coloring. Natural food colors were found to be in higher rangers of nutrition indicating that these dies can be used as food supplement. Microbial and fungal counts in jelly desserts were found within the consumable levels during one month period and indicating overall acceptability and shelf life of the jelly prepared using seaweed natural pigments extract was high when compared to jelly prepared using synthetic pigments.