Nutrient composition and growth performance of Clarias gariepinus cultured in Concrete and Cage enclosures

Abstract

A 62-day experiment was conducted at the Teaching and Research Farm, Ekiti State University, Ado – Ekiti to compare the nutrient and growth performance of Clarias gariepinus juvenile cultured in Cage and concrete enclosures. Clarias gariepinus juveniles were reared in a concrete tank of 2 ×1.2 × 1m dimension. There were three (3) different stocking spaces of twenty (20) fish per replicate for both culturing systems. The Fish were fed at 4% body weight with water quality of pH 6.88±0.007, Temperature 26.54±0.16, Dissolved Oxygen 6.01 ±0.13 in cage enclosure and pH 6.63 ±0.05, Temperature 25.74 ±0.09, Dissolved Oxygen 5.64± 0.15 in a concrete enclosure. The best growth performance was recorded in the fish cultured in cage enclosure with weight gain of 1.50 ± 0.26, specific growth rate (SGR) of 8.31 ± 1.59, feed efficiency ratio (FER) of 1.56 ± 0.28, and protein efficiency ratio (PER) of 1.40 ± 0.26. The results from the study showed that Clarias gariepinus juvenile had the best performance in the cage culture system.