Earthworm, Eisenia fetida, bedding meal as potential cheap fishmeal replacement ingredient for semi-intensive farming of Nile Tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus

Abstract

The study amalgamated earthworm and agro-industrial wastes through vermicomposting and then evaluated the potential of the bedding (mixture of Eisenia fetida and vermicompost) to replace fishmeal in semi-intensive farming of Oreochromis niloticus. The bedding was used to substitute fishmeal at inclusion rates of 100, 60, 30 and 0% (D100, D60, D30 and control D0). In triplicates, the four homogeneous diets were fed to quadruplicate groups of 30 g O. niloticus for 112 days. There was no significant difference (p >.05) in mortalities, average length gain and FCR among all tests. Nevertheless, diet D0 had significantly (p