The effects of garlic on the growth, survival and histology of Clarias gariepinus were examined during the period of eight weeks. One hundred and eighty (180) fingerlings with initial mean weight of 3.90 ± 0.02 were stocked at 15 fish per net happa (0.8 cm x 0.6 cm x 0.4 cm) suspended in an earthen pond of (12 m x 12 m x 1.5 m).
Triplicate groups of fish with garlic feed inclusion were fed at 3% body weight with four Iso-nitrogenous diet (40% crude protein) in Treatment Diet1 (TD1) (control), Treatment Diet2 (TD2) 10%, Treatment Diet3 (TD3) 20% and Treatment Diet4 (TD4) 30% respectively. At the end of the experiment, mean weight gain (MWG), Feed conversion ratio (FCR), specific growth rate (SGR), protein efficiency ratio (PER) and total protein consumed (TPC) were statistically close among the Treatments.
The highest MWG (53.63 ± 0.63) was recorded in fish fed with T4 while the lowest was recorded in fish fed T1 (41.73 ± 0.63). Specific growth ratio (SGR) was high in fish fed T4 (3.04 ± 0.06) and low in T3 (2.32 ± 0.04). The Treatment with the highest Feed conversion ratio (FCR) was T3 (2.57 ± 0.03) and the lowest was in T1 (2.11 ± 0.05). The overall best Treatment was Treatment 4 with 30% inclusion level of garlic source.
The histological examinations show no visible lesion in the liver and gut of all the Treatments except Treatment 3 with diffuse vacuolar degeneration of the hepatocytes, the gills in Treatment 4 has the epithelial cells of the secondary lamellae fused and proliferated.
Result obtained in this study indicated that 30% garlic inclusion rate in a compounded feed helps in feed utilization and growth Performance with no negative effect to the tissues.
The hatchery facilities of a reputable fish farm in Abeokuta were used to carry out studies on the effects of different diets on the survival of African catfish Clarias gariepinus hatchlings. The larvae (1.8mg each) were distributed into the twelve feeding experiment apartments (1.7 m × 0.7 m x 0.5 m each) at 1,500 lavae/apartment. On the fourth day, feeding commenced with the experimental diets. The diets were fish meal (Danish) of 72% Crude Protein; baker's yeast (VAHINE); compounded feed (50% Crude Protein) and hen egg yolk. Each treatment was replicated thrice and feed fed to the larvae at 30% body weight twice daily for 30 days. All the experimental diets had no significant effects on the growth of the larvae to fingerling at P > 0.05. The mean fingerlings final weight (mg) was 1523.2 ±295, 1700.8 ± 686, 367.9 ± 118 and 1675.9 ± 1167 for fish meal, yeast, compounded feed and hen egg yolk respectively. The specific and relative growth rates of the larvae under all the treatments were also not significant (P > 0.05). Considering the growth parameters, the best performance was observed in fish fed diet 2 (yeast), closely followed by diet 4 (hen egg yolk), then diet 1 (fish meal) and least in fish fed diet 3 (compounded feed). The low survival rate observed in all the diets, Compounded feed (10%) > hen egg yolk (4.1%) > Fish meal(3.5%) > yeast(1.7%) could be attributed to the lack of sorting exercise carried out in the experiment.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.