Aquaculture of Heterotis niloticus in Sub-Saharan Africa: Potentials and Perspectives

Abstract

The review was carried out during the months of October 2019 to July 2020. The goal was to carry out a literature review on aquaculture of Heterotis niloticus in order to contribute to a better knowledge of the breeding of commonly named African bonytongue in Africa. The review, based on 41 published papers starting from 1980 to 2020 concerning common fish and Heterotis niloticus farming research in Africa. The most farmed fish species documented were in order of importance, Oreochromis niloticus, Clarias gariepinus, Cyprinus carpio and the less documented was Heterotis niloticus. Heterotis niloticus is microphagous and omnivorous species. The standard and total length of male and female are statistically close but their body weight is different according to gender. The fingerlings of H. niloticus grows rapidly with a diet 36% of protein and 6% of lipids. In Africa, the Specific Growth Rate (SGR) of Heterotis niloticus varies between 3.22g/day to 4g/day. The GonadoSomatic Index (GSI) varies to 0.003% -0.6% and to 0.2%-2.2% respectively for male and female, which is correlated with period of spawning. The aquaculture of Heterotis niloticus has huge potentials in high fish demanding environment and therefore needs accurate data