[1]
Maradun Hassan Faruk, Aquaculture and Biotechnology Programme, National Institute for Freshwater Fisheries Research, New Bussa, Nigeria.
[2]
Ibrahim Jabbo Zarau, Aquaculture and Biotechnology Programme, National Institute for Freshwater Fisheries Research, New Bussa, Nigeria.
[3]
Abdullahi Usman Bello, Aquaculture and Biotechnology Programme, National Institute for Freshwater Fisheries Research, New Bussa, Nigeria.
[4]
Nasiru Sani Shinkafi, National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Service, ABU Zaria, Nigeria.
An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of different starter diets (Artemia, Skretting fry feed and a combination of Artemia and Skretting starter diet) on growth performance and survival of African catfish fry. The experiment was carried out at the hatchery section of Happy Island Garden, Sokoto in a completely randomized design. A total of 450 four-day-old fry were stocked in nine plastic bowls of 30 litre capacity at a stocking density of 50 fish per bowl. The result showed that in terms of Final Mean Weight, Weight Gain, Percentage Weight Gain and Specific Growth Rate of the fry, there was significant difference (p<0.05) between fry fed solely on Artemia (treatment A) with mean values of 0.07, 0.07, 2455.55 and 23.13 respectively and fry fed solely on Skretting (Treatment B) which has mean values of 0.06, 0.05, 1900.00 and 21.33 but no significant difference (p>0.05) exist between fry in Treatment A and fry in Treatment C. Survival rate was also highest in treatment A with a mean value of 73.33 which differs significantly (p<0.05) from treatment B and treatment C with mean values of 46.67 and 50.00 respectively. It can be concluded from this study that C. gariepinus fry fed on Artemia only (Treatment A) has the best growth performance and survival which shows why Artemia has been the most used larval rearing diet on African catfish and this experiment also demonstrated that Artemia can be used to feed C. gariepinus fry for more than one week.
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