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.