Growth Performance of the African catfish, Clarias gariepinus, Fed Varying Inclusion Levels of Allium sativum as Feed Additives

Abstract

Diet supplementation is an important aspect in aquaculture management especially in intensive or in semi-intensive fish culture. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of Allium sativum on growth performance of African catfish, Clarias gariepinus fries. Four experimental diets were formulated to include Allium sativum powder at 0% (control), 0.5%, 1.0%, and 3.0% as additives. All the four treatment diets were fed to African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fries over a 70-day period. The result showed a similar (P>0.05) growth responses across the groups. However, the best growth response in body weight gain of 1.44 ± 0.07g, Specific Growth Rate (SGR) of 0.52 ± 0.03g and Feed conversion Ratio (FCR) of 5.60 ± 0.38 was obtained in fish fed 3.0% Allium sativum inclusion level while the best condition factor (K) was observed in fish fed 0.5 % Allium sativum inclusion level. Fish fed 0.0% Allium sativum had the lowest growth response of body weight gain, Specific Growth Rate (SGR), Feed conversion Ratio (FCR) and condition factor of 0.84 ± 0.11g, 0.36 ± 0.03g, 5.77 ± 0.53 and 0.80 ± 0.03 respectively. Garlic inclusion in fish diet at 3.0% (30g/kg) concentration is therefore beneficial for use in aquaculture to enhance growth promotion however a further research is recommended to investigate toxicity of this plant at varying inclusion levels of 0.5% to 3.0% in the Clarias gariepinus culturing to ascertain the best inclusion level.