1Inusa M., 1Balami, S.I., 1Shettima M. M., 2Imam M. B and 3Balarabe,S.
1Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Kashim Ibrahim University, Nigeria
2Department of Biological Science, Faculty of Science, University of Maiduguri, Borno, State, Nigeria
3Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Nigeria.
*Corresponding author’s Email: maravi.inusa@kiu.edu.ng, doi.org/10.55639/607.020100116
ABSTRACT
A four-week experiment was conducted to analyse the changes in growth performance and survival rate of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings fed plant-based crude proteins from Soyabean (Glycine max) and Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranean) formulated by incorporating 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% inclusion level as a replacement for fishmeal. A total of 600 fingerlings of C. gariepinus were purchased from a reputable fish farm and was completely randomized into fifteen experimental ponds (hapas) at 40 fish per each with 3 replicate and fed twice daily at 5% body weight under controlled conditions. Data obtained was subjected to analyses of variance and the differences among the means were separated using least significant difference (LSD). Results showed increases in crude protein from 18.75% (T1) to 38.00% (T5), while crude fat decreased from 15.94% (T1) to 5.57% (T5). The growth performance was observed highest in T3 with mean weight (12.80g), weight gain (11.01g) and feed conversion ratio (1.68g). there were no significant differences (p>0.05) observed in the specific growth rate among the treatments Survival rate was record at 75, 85, 72.5, 80 and 95% across all treatments with T5 having the highest, indicating that the diets had no adverse effects on fish health. The improved performance observed in higher inclusion levels was attributed to enhanced nutrient availability following processing of the plant ingredients and improved dietary energy balance. This study therefore, concluded that Bambara groundnut and soybean meal can effectively replace fishmeal up to 50% inclusion level in the diet of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings without compromising growth and survival rate.
KEYWORDS
Growth,
Survival,
Nutrition,
Catfish.

