Growth Performance and Carcass Analysis of African Catfish (Clarias Gariepinus) Juveniles Fed Varying Inclusion Levels Of Butterfly Pea (Clitoria Ternatea) Seed Meal

Abstract

High cost of qualitative fish feed is one of problems hampering the development and profitability of fish farming and consequently leads to food insecurity in terms of food availability and accessibility. The study was conducted to determine growth parameters and carcass composition of Clarias gariepinus juveniles of mean weight 21.74g+0.54g fed with varying levels of dietary inclusion of Clitoria ternatea seed meal substituted for soybean meal over a period of eight weeks. Four iso-nitrogenous experimental diets were formulated at 0% (control), 25%, 50% and 100% inclusion levels of C. ternatea seed meal. The 8-week feeding experiment was conducted in rectangular plastic tanks, each treatment having three replicates with two feeding regime at 5% body weight and weighed every week. At the end of the intensive feeding period, samples from each treatment were oven dried for nutritive analysis of the fish carcass. The values of mean weight gain for diets I and III were 27.7+1.11 and 27.23+0.94 respectively. Comparatively, the growth parameters values; FI(g), SGR(%), FCR(g), PER(%) and NPU(%) for control diet and diet III were the best with no significant difference (p>0.05). The Carcass evaluation revealed that Diet I had the highest crude protein which was not significantly different (p>0.05) from diet III. It was established that fish fed 50% inclusion level of C. ternatea seed meal had effective comparable biological values with the control diet in terms of growth performance and feed utilization. The total fish production (kg) showed no significant difference (p>0.05) between diets I and III.