This project work was basically conducted to provide fish farmers a preferable diet for Catfish fry.. Several diets were used while the fish growth rate amongst other parameters were observed
Abstract
The growth and survival of Clarias gariepinus larvae (0.42mg) fed Artemia salina (D1), inert diet (egg white + fish meal) (D2) and a combination of both diets (D3) was investigated for 42 days. Each diet was feed to 80 post yolk-sac fry, in triplicate plastic tanks holding 40L of water. The specific growth rate, survival, percentage weight gain, mean weight gain and performance index were investigated. The percentage weight gain and specific growth rate were not significantly different (P>0.05) for the various diets, while the final mean weight, survival and performance index of the larvae fed D1, D2 and D3 were significantly different (P<0.05) from each other.The highest specific growth rate (14.86 g/day), final weight (4.39g) and survival (60.42%) were recorded in fish fed D3 while the least growth was recorded in fish fed D2 with specific growth rate of 11.88g/day, final weight of 0.993g and survival of 30.42%. The result indicated that there was an increase in body weight among diets types; the mean was 0.731g for larvae fed D3, 0.421g for larvae fed D1 and 0.165g for larvae fed D2. The performance index for Clarias gariepinus larvae fed D3 was the highest (6.3) followed by D1 (2.51) and then D2 (0.714).
It was therefore recommended that Clarias gariepinus larvae be fed with a combination of the inert diet and Artemia salina to achieve better growth performance and higher survival rate.
Key Words: larvae, Clarias gariepinus, live feed, Artemia salina, inert diet
