Comparison of Growth Performance of three Strains of Clarias gariepinus: Hybrid Strain, Selective Breeding Strain and Wild Strain Reared in Concrete Tanks

Abstract

A comparative study was conducted to investigate the growth performance of three strains of Clarias gariepinus reared in concrete tanks. The experiment was carried out for the period of three weeks. Three strains of Clarias gariepinus which were compared were hybrid strain, selective breeding strain and the pure/wild strain. The experimental fish were randomly assigned to three experimental groups. Each treatment was therefore replicated three times with 60 fry per replicate in concrete tanks. At harvest there was no significant difference among Hybrid strain, Selective breeding strain and wild strain (P˃0.05) in fish’ final body weight (1.83±0.11, 1.178±0.46 and 1.739±0.42). The SGR for hybrid strain, selective breeding strain and wild strains were 12.93 ±0.23, 4.53±0.22and 12.81±0.26. The survival rate for hybrid strain, selective breeding strain and pure strain 70%, 80% and 66.66 %respectively. The was no significant difference (p˃0.05) in FCR (2.12±0.01, 2.12±0.03 and 2.11±0.01) for hybrid strain, selective breeding strain and wild strain respectively. Though the difference was not that significant the pure Clarias gariepinus had the lower FCR as compared to the others. Therefore, this study recommends that hybrid Clarias gariepinus has a good performance as compared to the selective breeding strain and the wild Clarias gariepinus.