IMPROVING THE SURVIVAL RATE OF AFRICAN CATFISH, Clarias gariepinus

Abstract

A field study was conducted to alleviate the cannibalism phenomena among the African catfish, Clarias gariepinus fry via periodical grading to eliminate the number of jumpers fry. There were significant differences among treatments in favor of T1 (control without grading) at the 4th week. However, the middle frequency of grading (T2: grading each 3 days) realized the best survival rate (SR) of 49.17 % after 4 weeks and the highest fry body weight at the 2nd week. So, with middle labor (grading the newly hatched fry every 3 days) and economic efforts without great stress on the fry, man can elevate the SR by 41 and 27 times than without grading (T1) or grading each 7days (T3), respectively. So, the economic efficacy (from selling the fry) could be improved by the same rate.