Evaluation of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus L.) fed dietary potato peels as replacement for yellow maize

The recent increase in the numbers of fast food vendors in Akure means that large quantities of Irish potato peels will be generated and discarded with high propensity for causing environmental pollution. Also the prize of maize in Akure has increased by about 31 % between January and August 2009. Therefore, the present study evaluated the bio-economic use of Irish potato peels in Nile tilapia diets with a view to achieving environmentally friendly and cost effective fish production. Nile tilapia (29.4 ~c 1.40g) was fed five diets (01-05) in glass tanks for 56 days. The basal diet (01) contained 26% yellow maize and 35% CPO Then the yellow maize in diets 02-05 was replaced with potato peels at 10, 20, 30 and 40% respectively. At the end of the experiment, growth of the fish was statistically the same in all treatments. However, fish fed 03 and 04 showed uniform and best potentials while the fish fed 05 had the worst performance indicating 30% replacement as the optimum. Economic estimation showed that lkg diet costs about (N81.6-N103.6) depending on the level of potato peels inclusion in the diets while (1.12-1.67kg) of fish was produced from each treatment with 85-95% survival rate of the fish. Incidence of cost (IC) showed marginal variations among the treatments with 30% replacement having the least and 40% replacement the highest costs of fish production. 40% replacement had the highest IC because of high mortality (15%) and poor growth of fish under the treatment. Similarly, the profit index (PI) was closely related with 30% replacement having the highest profit margin. In conclusion, both growth and economic indices established that Irish potato peels can replace up to 30% of yellow maize in diets of Nile tilapia

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