Evaluation of local feed ingredients based diets on growth performance of African catfish, Clarias gariepinus

Formulating the right feed based on the requirements of the fish species is the main solver to reduce the high cost of aquaculture production. In formulating suitable diet, factors such as the sustainability or availability of the feed sources used, quality of the feeds and price of raw materials, need to be taken into account as well so that the diets can be formulated at least cost. Low cost diets using local feed ingredients were formulated in pelleted and extruded forms and fed to juvenile African catfish, Clarias gariepinus, to determine their effect on the growth performance of the fish. Two formulations were tested: Diet A - Formula 1 MARDI and Diet B -Formula 2 MARDI, which were formulated to be iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous with 32 % digestible protein and energy value of 14 MJ/kg. A commercial diet (Diet C) was included as a control. At 15 wk of culture, fish fed diet C showed the highest growth performance in terms of weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and specific growth rate (SGR). There were no significant differences (P>0.05) found among diets for weight gain and feed intake. However, FCR and SGR of Diet C were significantly better (P<0.05) compared to the experimental diets. The best FCR was recorded in Diet C at 1.17, followed by Diet A (1.42) and Diet B (1.46). Diet C also had the highest SGR with 1.99%/day followed by Diet B (1.70) and Diet A (1.67). Cost of both diets, A and B, was RM 2.50/kg compared to RM 3.50/kg for Diet C. Although the FCR of the commercial feed was lower than the experimental diets, the production cost of fish was RM4.11/kg for the commercial feed compared to RM 3.54-3.65/kg for the experimental diets. It is concluded that local feed ingredients can be used in formulating diets for catfish and they haveno detrimental effect on the growth of African catfish.