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ABSTRACT
In Aquaculture fish feed is conventionally formulated to contain high amount of fishmeal (32-40%) and this is very expensive thus increasing the cost of fish production. There is therefore the need to source for alternatives cheaper feed that can produce equally acceptable results. This study investigated the growth performance of African catfish (clarias gariepenus) fry raised with a commercial feed and a farm made diet. Three treatments were used with three replicates per treatment. A total of 1800 fry with initial mean weight of (0.31 ± 0.10) were obtained. The experiment was conducted for a period of four weeks and the weight increased finally after four weeks to (3.62 ± 0.13).
Water quality parameters were recorded once a week. The results showed that water quality parameters such as temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, ammonia content were within acceptable range. The effects of different diets on specific growth rate (SGR), survival rate (SR) and feed utilization were determined.
Treatment 1 (Commercial feed) produced a better result compared to the others in terms of weight gain (2.30 ± 0.97) and specific growth rate (2.67 ± 1.59). The lowest growth performance was with fry in Treatment II i.e. Fry fed with farm made diet. Estimated cost of feeding was higher in farm made diet and combination of the farm made diet and the commercial feed (N5260), with lowest values occurring in fry fed with Commercial feed (4800). Farmers intending for a better outcome for their fry are advised to use Gemma wean as it gives a better yield.
