Day 43 and 44- Last feeding day, luggage preparation, fasting day pre-sampling.

Pierre and Emilie going to the cages (credits: Francis Murray).

This was the last day of feeding for our tilapias juveniles.

Emilie and Pierre went on cages while I ordered for the last time the data files and prepared my luggages. Then in the afternoon Emilie checked with supervisors the organization of next coming Monday for the last sampling day of this growth trial.

Then on Sunday, since the fish needed to fasting for Monday handling, Emilie and Pierre went around for visiting the places around the fish farm while I had some rest and check with my family for my return trip.

At home during packaging luggage (credits:Nicole Pelusio).

At Sunday evening, the general manager proposed as to join him for a relaxing dinner in a hotel at Atimpoku. Obviously my last Ghanaian dish was a nice roasted tilapia with banku. After some chatting we came back home getting ready for the last sampling.

Day 42- Last spectro analyses and Market in Juapong for African souvenirs.

Mathilda fabrics seller in her shop in Juapong market (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

African fabrics (credits Nicole Pelusio).

Emilie was looking after the cages within feeder Eric whilst I helped by Pierre analyzing last water samples with spectrophotometer.

Then in the evening I managed to go for my last shopping in Juapong market main day.

Usually in that village in each Wednesday and Saturday sellers from different villages come to sell every kind of items like food, shoes, clothes, fabrics, cosmetics, tools for cooking etcetera of every color, size and smell.

Nicolina (Mathilda's daughter) in fabrics shop (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

There I met a very nice fabrics seller called Mathilda who explained me several meanings of color and symbols on Ghanaian fabrics. After a satisfying last shopping in Juapong, I drunk the milk and ate the flesh of a fresh coconut on the road before taking a tro tro and motorbike for coming back home. 

Video on motorbike coming back home (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

Day 41- Emilie, Pierre and the wind.

On boat coming to shore (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

In the afternoon Emilie and the other University of Stirling phD student Pierre arrived to join me on the cages.

Finally they arrived and helped me and Eric to finish feeding and water monitoring since a strong wind storm was arriving: four people are better than two!

When we arrived to the shore, we went around for looking for some nice insects to taking some nice and colorful pictures before coming home.

At dinner, for celebrate their arrival I cooked some nice pasta with parmesan, while Emilie and Pierre took some biscuits and a nice bottle of French wine. Cheers!

Day 40- Fingerling transportation.

Fingerling transportation on boat. Supervisor Jemimah within the crew (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

What a great chance I had today: the supervisor Jemimah and the nursery crew had to transport some new fingerlings inside some cages very close to my experimental cages.

The crew let me join them on board for observing transport boat while they were finishing to put fingerlings in the cages.

Jemimah and Cherles preparing the tube for moving fingerlings into cages (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

After that I came back to the floating platform for ending the feeding sessions and data recording within Felix.

Day 39- Fry ponds and big hard sun.

Fry ponds (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

My supervisors were very kind to switch me for some hours, and as well the general manager to taking me to some nursery ponds.

In the shade for a while(credits: Nicole Pelusio).

The site was the much harsh, since there was almost no shade for getting some repair from the sunlight. 

Whilst visiting the earthen ponds I met a really nice feeder called Augustina who answered very kindly to my curiosities and allowed me to take some pictures to her during feeding session.

After a lot of sunlight I and general manager came back to nursery site for finishing the daily duties.

Feeder Augustina on pond during feeding session (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

Day 38- A long working day.

Feeding session on cages with Felix (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

Today I finished the commissions concerning the trial. Meanwhile the daily routine tasks and water quality parameters such as Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, Alkalinity, Potassium and etcetera went on within the great help of Oscar and Jemimah.

Coming back home I took some pictures of beautiful lilies growing on the ground in the forest near to my house.

Lilies growing on the ground (credits:Emilie Devic).

Day 37- Where everything begins.

Tilapia egg at stage 0 (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

Again in the hatchery site, I had a very big luck for having free time, a borrowed microscope and some fries and eggs for observing them.

After spawning, the fertilized eggs had the maturation of embryo (eye pigmentation spots, developing of back bones, and organs), then after hatching the larvae has to reabsorbing the yolk sac whilst waiting the gastro enteric tube to  getting ready for feeding and digestion. It was something absolutely great observing tilapias before they are grown up in ponds and lakes.

Tilapia egg at stage1, the black bones development and eye pigmentation is almost finished (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

Tilapia larvae on microscope (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

Video of tilapia larvae in a becker (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

Day 36- The brood stocks maintenance and the night.

Brood-stock harvest for sexing (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

Because of some commissions to do about the growth trial, I was sent to the hatchery of fish farm. When I had some free time, the manager guided me to a visit of the buildings and passages of eggs and fries production. Then I had also the luck to assist the sexing, counting and separation of brood-stocks.

Brood-stock sexing, a male on left and a female on right (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

In the afternoon I had to come back home in the dark, fortunately for finishing the way by motorbike I was brought up to my accommodation in the red sand road lighten up by only the moon.

Day 35- Return to field activity.

Reaching experimental cages by canoe (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

In the early morning, I finally came back to the nursery for meeting supervisor Amos and feeder Felix for having a report and description of the previous day storm.

Then the damaged buckets were switched with others new, after checking and recording their weight (for tare estimation in daily feed intake).

Sunday afternoon passed very quiet and smooth until the end of the day.

Recording data on floating office (the platform) (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

Day 33 and 34- Hard sun and hard storm.

Grass hopper on platform below the sunlight (credits: Nicole Pelusio).

In the morning since the sky was cleaned the sunlight was too much strong for me. In the half of the day I started having fever and sweating a lot. Feeling really weak I had to stop and reach the shore for seek some shade and rest. Then the owner of fish farm saw me and took me to Accra for having blood tests, making sure that it wasn’t a Malaria prelude. Because of the time of analyses, I had to spend one night in Accra for waiting the results.

When I left the fish farm, a severe rain storm blocked workers for a couple of hours, interrupting everything, either the electric power. Unfortunately some of trial buckets containing the feed lost the lid because of strong wind and rain.

The sever storm arriving in the fish farm (credits:Nicole Pelusio).