PROXIMATE COMPOSITION, VISCERAL FAT AND ORGANOSOMATIC INDICES OF Clarias gariepinus FINGERLINGS REARED AT DIFFERENT TIMES

Abstract

Twelve-weeks feeding trial was conducted using completely randomized design with experimental plastic containers (50 litres with water level at 35L) to investigate the proximate composition, visceral contents, fats and the condition factor (K) of African catfish Clarias gariepinus. Coppens was used to feed triplicate groups of 15 fish having four treatments. Fish were fed the diet to satiation once a day (morning), once a day (night), twice a day (morning and night) and thrice a day (morning, afternoon and night). The feeding schedules showed significant differences (p>0.05) on the body composition, organ indices, eviscerated carcass composition, viscera lipid and liver lipid. The result of the proximate composition showed all the treatments having significant differences (p<0.05) in their nutrient utilization. T1 showed significantly higher (p<0.05) nutrient utilization for moisture, lipid, ash and energy, while carbohydrate was significantly higher (p<0.05) in T2. Protein content was highest in T4, while fiber was significantly higher (p<0.05) in T3. The results showed that T4 had the highest condition coefficient which was >1 and differed significantly (p<0.05) among the treatments. The visceral content of C. gariepinus at the end of the study revealed that T1 had the highest indices with respect to other feeding treatments, however, these differences were only significant in (p<0.05) HSI, VSI and CY. This study revealed that feeding of C. gariepinus to satiation thrice a day yielded the best condition among the various feeding strategies experimented. Considering the importance of nutrition to fish growth, this study recommends this feeding strategy to farmers.