Digestibility, Blood Profile and Enzyme Activity of Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822) Fed Diets Containing Sweet Potato Peel

Abstract

This study evaluated digestibility, haematological indices and enzymes activities of Clarias gariepinus fed sweet potato peel as a replacement for maize. Five experimental diets were formulated at a crude protein of 35% using Pearson’s square method; maize was replaced by sweet potato peel in the diets at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. Fifteen plastic tanks of 200-litres each were used. 10 juveniles of C. gariepinus were introduced into the experimental tanks. The fish were fed at 5% biomass twice per day. The experiment lasted for 12 weeks. The fish fed 100% sweet potato peel gave the best digestibility coefficients contents of 43.17%, 65.44% and 95.12% for apparent ash, fat and protein digestibility, respectively. The fish fed 100% sweet potato peel recorded the highest packed cell volume of 27.75% in the blood while the least percentage of 23.21 was recorded in the fish fed 25% sweet potato peel. The lipase activity was highest (0.79U/mg) in the fish fed 100% sweet potato peel while the fish fed 25% sweet potato peel had the least (0.47U/mg). This research revealed that the enzymes activities were the main factors that activated the experimental fish to assimilate the sweet potato peel more efficiently.