Nutritional Evaluation of Defatted Groundnut Cake meal with Amino acid as Protein Supplement in African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus Burchell, 1822) Juveniles Diet

Abstract

Background and Objective: Fish feed constitute about 60% of fish production costs and this is because fishmeal (FM) which is the major protein feedstuff in fish feed is in excessive demand by other agricultural production sectors thus leading to increase in its price.Researching into alternative way of attenuating FM in fish feed production becomes necessary.Consequently, in this paper, the effect of feeding Clarias gariepinus juveniles with diets supplemented with defatted groundnut cake (DGNC), lysine (L) and methionine (M) was studied for 56 days.Materials and Methods: Fish of an initial mean body weight of 34.4±0.548g were fed the trial diets at inclusion levels of 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%.The diet with 0% DGNC and 100% fishmeal served as the control.The experimental fish held in 56 L troughs were fed treatment diets in triplicate group of 20 fish per replicate at 5% body weight twice daily.Water parameters measured according to standard methods were pH, temperature, conductivity and NH 3 .Dissolved oxygen was not determined because the experiment was completely flow-through.Results: At the end of the feeding trial, fish fed with the control diet recorded the highest mean weight gain (17.33±1.53),followed by fish fed diet 2 (14.33±0.58).Protein intake and survival rate were not significantly different (p<0.05) but protein efficiency ratio was significantly different among dietary treatments.Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) was highest at diets 1, 2 and 3, respectively and were not statistically different (p<0.05).The water quality parameters monitored in the trial were within recommended range and were not affected by the supplemented diets.Conclusion: It can be concluded that, substituting FM with DGNC, L and M at 25 and 50% inclusion will not compromise growth performance and feed utilization of the fish and neither will it significantly lower the water quality of the culture environment.