The evaluation of raw and fermented water hyacinth Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms as dietary ingredient for young grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella (Val, 1844) was carried out by adding 20% of each of the alternative ingredients separately to the control diet to completely compensate barley, a portion of wheat bran and 20% of fish meal. Results indicated that all growth and feed efficiency parameters among treatments were similar and there were no significant difference (p>0.05) in specific growth rate (SGR), food conversion ratio (FCR), protein efficiency ratio (PER) and protein productive value (PPV) of fish fed any of the diets. The diet containing fermented water hyacinth (WF) was found to be more efficiently utilized by fish and of highest digestibility values for all nutrients, which indicated that the digestibility was stimulated by incorporation of fermented water hyacinth. The raw water hyacinth diet (WR) produced significantly (p<0.05) highest satiation level associated with lowest digestible energy. Evacuation rate was not affected significantly (p>0.05) by the inclusion of raw or fermented water hyacinth to the diets. The protein, lipid and ash levels in carcass were higher in fishes fed the control diet (C). In conclusion, incorporation of raw or fermented water hyacinth up to 20% level was found to be suitable and there were no adverse effects on the growth and feed efficiency of experimental fishes.

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This study was conducted in earthen ponds of shrimp hatchery belonging to the Basrah Agricultural Directorate, to find out the effect using of food additives omega-3 and Vitamin E on the performance of the growth and the quality of the produced larvae of the common carp Cyprinus carpio L.. Three treatments were used, the first treatment (T1) represented control without any food additives, the second treatment (T2) contained 5gm.Kg-1 diet of omega-3 fatty acids and the third treatment (T3) contained Vit. E was added at 200 mg.Kg-1 diet. The experiment lasted for 82 days. For each treatment three replicate were used and six common carp brood stock in each replicate. The productive parameters (body weight, weight gain, feed conversion rate, feed efficiency ratio% and specific and relative growth rate%) were measured. Results indicated an improvement in all production parameters and in the feed conversion efficiency of for T2 and T3, compared with the T1. The weight gain (526.39 gm.fish-1), feed conversion rate was 3.61 and feed efficiency ratio was  28.13% for the T2 which showed a significant differences (P<0.05) compared to the control, while T3 did not show significant differences (P>0.05 ) in comparison with both treatments T1 and T2; the specific and relative growth rate for T2 were 0.32%.day-1 and 30.81 %.day-1 respectively showed also a significant differences (P<0.05) compared with the control. These results showed that addition Vit. E to the diet improved the production parameters of common carp larvae better than in omega-3 and control treatments. The study concluded that addition omega-3 fatty acids at a concentration of 5gm Kg -1, and Vit. E at a concentration of 200 mg kg-1 to the diet enhanced the growth rates of common carp and improved larvae production.

The current study aims to compare the growth of young grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella fed on either artificial diet or alfalfa. The experiment was carried out in the earthen ponds of the Aquaculture Unit in the Agricultural Researches and Experiments Station (College of Agriculture, University of Basrah), which is located in the Al-Hartha district, approximately 16 km north of Basra (300 65' 64.6''N, 470 74' 79.5''E). The experiment begun from 26 July 2019 to 10 December 2019. Six ponds with an area of 600 square meters each were used for treatments. Fish were distributed equally to the culture ponds (600 fish per pond) at average individual weight of 6.3±0.28 g. Fish in artificial diet treatment were fed 5 % of the body weight and in alfalfa treatment 50 % of the body weight. Samples of fish were weighed every twenty days for the purpose of controlling growth parameters subsequently adjusting the daily feed provided based on the new weight. The growth criteria (final weight, weight gain, daily growth rate, specific growth rate, relative growth rate, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio) were calculated. Results of the current study showed that the water temperature is the most variable factor, for example, the highest temperature was 27.2oC in July, while the lowest temperature was 18.7oC in December. Results of growth criteria of the current study showed that grass carp in earthen ponds preferred alfalfa rather than the artificial diet, as the final average weight were 97.35, 47.18 g, the weight gain rate were 91.73, 40.75 g fish-1, the daily growth rate were 1.27, 0.42 g day-1, relative growth rate 1707.77, 629.99 %, specific growth rate were 3.92, 2.04 % day-1, feed conversion ratio were 11.75, 2.51and protein efficiency ratio were 1.75, 0.45 for fish fed on alfalfa plant and the artificial diet respectively.