Abstract
The study was designed to determine the growth response of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) juveniles on diets with two vegetable-carried blood meals (brewers’ dried grains with blood meal (BB) and rumen contents with blood meal (RB)) as protein sources and alternatives to imported commercial fish feed (CatCo?). Diets, with BB and RB included at 10%, formulated to supply 45% crude protein and 4,300 Kcal digestible energy/kg in similarity with CatCo?, were used in a 49-day trial in plastic tanks (L × B × H: 53 cm × 37 cm × 29 cm; capacity 50 liters). Juveniles were evaluated in terms of mean final body weight (MFBW), mean weight gain (MWG), average daily gain (ADG), specific growth rate (SGR), average daily feed intake (ADFI), feed conversion ratio (FCR), protein efficiency ratio (PER), feed cost/g gain (FCGA), and mortality (as % survival). CatCo? was superior (P ? was similar (P < 0.05) to BB in PER but inferior in FCGA (0.46 vs. 0.36 Naira/g gain; 1 US$ = N150). RB was similar (P < 0.05) to BB in PER but least economical in FCGA (0.51 Naira/g gain). The study demonstrated the potential of vegetable-carried blood meals from brewers’ dried grains and dewatered rumen contents as alternatives for use as feed for African catfish especially juveniles.
Highlights
The current global feed demands of the aquaculture sector rely almost exclusively on expensive fishmeal and fish oil
Seventy African catfish juveniles purchased from a commercial fish farm were acclimatized to experimental conditions for 10 days on the commercial fish feed twice a day (07.00 - 08.00 h and 17.00 - 18.00 h) at 5% of their body weight
The mean final body weight (MFBW), mean weight gain (MWG), average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), specific growth rate (SGR), and average daily protein intake (ADPI) were highest (P < 0.05) for fish fed CatCo® followed by BB2 and RB2 diets
Summary
The current global feed demands of the aquaculture sector rely almost exclusively on expensive fishmeal and fish oil. The focus of research in this area is on use of vegetable or plant protein alternatives [1,3] One of such potential feedstuffs is vegetable-carried blood meal [4], where crop residues or vegetable carriers (wheat offal, dewatered rumen contents, maize offal and brewers’ dried grains) used as absorbents for blood were sun-dried and milled. Sun-dried rumen contents with blood meal and brewers’ dried grains with blood meal (at 10% in diets with fishmeal, soybean meal, groundnut cake, vegetable oil, maize and wheat offal) were inferior in growth performance to a high quality commercial fish feed for African catfish fingerlings [6]. The ability to utilize fiber by fish appears to increase with age and size feed conversion efficiency decreases [7,8] the hypothesis is that juvenile African catfish may better utilize fiber than fingerlings and the objective was to determine the effect of sun-dried rumen contents and brewers’ dried grains with blood meals on performance of juveniles
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