Growth Performance and Nutrient Utilization of Clarias. gariepinus Fed Soaked Boscia senegalensis Supplemented Diets

Abstract

The present study investigated the nutritional suitability and cost effectiveness of a Sahelian plant seeds, Aizien (Boscia senegalensis) as alternative to Soy bean meal in the diet of African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus Burchell, 1822). Raw seeds of the B. senegalensis were subjected to processing method intended to reduce levels of the most important antinutritional factors (ANFs). The resultant product was used to formulate five isonitrogenous (40%) diets, containing the seed meals at inclusion levels of 25% to 100% of dietary protein and fed to Fingerlings of the African Catfish at 5% of their body weight for a period of 24 weeks. The feeding trial involved one hundred and fifty (150) fingerlings of C. gariepinus(2.43g –3.10g) randomly stocked at ten fish per Tank (200L) in a non-flow through design with regular water replacement and water quality monitoring. Important growth performance and nutrient utilization indices, weight gain (WG), specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR), protein efficiency ratio (PER), and Feed conversion efficiency (FCE) of fish in the experimental groups fed SBS based showed that Fish fed 50% SBS diet recorded the highest WG (439.14g), SGR (1.34%/day) and FCR (1.35). This could be attributed to the protein quality of the diets in relation to the dietary essential amino acid profile of the experimental diets used. Generally, the Fish fed the 100%SBS diet recorded the lowest growthperformance with regards to WG (360.68g), SGR(1.25), FCR (1.61), PER (1.58) and FCE (62.22%).From the results of this experiment, for better production of African catfish C. gariepinus, replacement levels of 50 SBS may serve as good alternative to SBM in feed formulation for C. gariepinus.