Feeding trial was conducted to examine the protein sparing effects of carbohydrate in Clarias gariepinus, an attempt to reduce the feed cost. C. gariepinus fingerlings mean weights of 8.32 ±0.04 g were randomly allotted into a group of 15 fishes per tank in triplicate of 10 treatments. They were fed on nine experimental diets and a commercial catfish reference diet (CRD). The formulated diets have three levels of carbohydrate (5, 10 and 20%) of three carbohydrate sources (corn fibre, corn starch and glucose) and three levels of crude protein (30, 25 and 20%). The results of the trial showed significant differences (P<0.05) in all the carbohydrate sources fed to C. gariepinus at different levels of carbohydrate/ protein ratios. However, of the three carbohydrate sources, corn fibre spared protein at 5% inclusion levels while other carbohydrate sources gave significantly same degree of performance.

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A feeding trial was conducted to establish the protein sparing effects of various lipid sources in Oreochromis niloticus fingerlings (mean weight 8.05 ±0.05g) for 8 weeks. Nine experimental diets and one commercial reference diet was used for the trial. The experimental diets comprised of three levels of lipid (L) and protein (P) designated as 15P : 25L, 10P : 30L and 5P : 35L ratios. Three lipid sources used were groundnut oil, palm oil and fish oil. The result obtained showed significant differences (P<0.05) among the lipid sources. Fish oil showed significant differences in the mean weight gain (MWG), specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion rate (FCR), and apparent net protein utilization (ANPU) for all the treatments. The carcass compositions was also significant (P<0.05) in moisture, lipid and ash which resulted in protein sparing at 10% inclusion level thereby bringing down crude protein inclusion level to 30%. Groundnut oil did not show significant difference (P>0.05) in the MWG, and SGR for all the treatments, but showed significant difference (P<0.05) for the FCRs, PERs and ANPUs. The palm oil based diets also gave significant difference (P<0.05) in the MWG, SGR, PER and ANPU. There was significant difference (P<0.05) in the carcass compositions. Groundnut oil was observed to spare protein at 10% inclusion level while palm oil spared same at 15% inclusion level. These findings will ensure reduction in the crude protein inclusion level in the diets of O. niloticus using these lipid sources.

Soybean waste has always been treated as waste product from soybean milk or cheese production despite its high nutrient profile. It is in view of this, a feeding, trial was conducted to evaluate its (soybean waste or soymilk residue) utilization as replacement for fish meal in the diet of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings (1.09±0.23 g). Twenty fishes were randomly distributed in 15 tanks in replicate and fed varied inclusion levels of soybean waste at 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%. The results showed significant differences (p<0.05) among the growth parameters. However, diet containing 25% soybean waste gave the best growth performance in terms of mean weight gain, specific growth rate, protein efficiency ratio and food conversion ratio. The use of soybean waste meal has the potentials to improve the growth performance and body composition of fish.

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