Untitled

Abstract

An eight-week experimental study was undertaken to determine the effect of whole soya bean meal (SBM) with reference to common fish feed ingredients, consisting of Omena (Rastineobola argentea) meal (RAM), Freshwater shrimp (Caridina niloticus) meal (CNM) and commercial fish meal (CFM, control diet) on water quality, growth performance and survival of O. niloticus fingerlings. Fifty fry weighing 0.4 + 0.01 g were randomly stocked in triplicate glass aquaria tanks (67.5 cm by 34.4 cm by 32.0 cm) and fed on whole RAM, SBM, CNM or CFM. Feeding was performed twice daily at 3% of fry wet body weights. Water quality parameters were monitored daily. Growth parameters and survivals of all fry per tank were assessed weekly. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) in water quality parameters between the experimental groups and were within acceptable limits. No significant difference (p>0.05) was observed in the growth performance of fingerlings fed on SBM and any of the other diets. However, fingerlings fed on SBM exhibited considerably higher growth performance than those fed on RAM or CNM. Although there was no significant difference (p>0.05) in the survival of fingerlings fed on SBM and RAM, survival of fingerlings fed on SBM was significantly higher (p<0.05) than those fed on CNM. Whole SBM is not only considerably better than RAM and CNM but is also comparable to CFM in terms of its effects on water quality, growth performance and survival; hence, could be a replacement for expensive and low-quality commercial feeds in raising O. niloticus fingerlings.