Comparison of growth performance of African catfish, Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822) larvae fed on chicken egg yolk and Moina at weaning stage

Abstract

The experiments was conducted to assess the performance of catfish larvae fed on a chicken egg yolk weaning feed and moina live feed post endogenous yolk sac depletion to 21 days. The experiment was conducted in replicates to validate the consistence of the weaning effect of the feed on the growth of catfish larvae. Results showed that the final larval mean specific growth rate (%) in length of larvae weaned using moina live feed significantly performed better than that of Larvae weaned on the chicken egg yolk feed, t (538) = 8.240, P<0.05. The percentage mean length daily increment (SGR) was notably higher in feed Moina Diet (M=5.7, SD=1.59) than chicken egg yolk diet (M=4.7, SD=1.19). Although, moina weaner feed performed better than the chicken egg yolk feed, there were no significant difference in larval survival t (4) = 0.885, (P>0.05). The percentage survival of moina diet (72%) was better than the chicken egg yolk diet (67%). In spite of the good performance of the moina live feed, results from other feed (diet) were fairly good as well.