Growth Performance and Cost-Effectiveness of Feeding Composite Nursing of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus and African Catfish, Clarias gariepinus Fingerlings with Two Feed Types and their Mixture

Abstract

This study investigated growth performance and cost-effectiveness of 1:1 composite nursing of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus and African catfish, Clarias gariepinus fingerlings fed separately with the same brand of commercial feeds of tilapia, catfish and their equal mixture in hapa-in-pond system for 77 days. The study was conducted at the Aquaculture Research and Development Centre (ARDEC) of Water Research Institute (WRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Akosombo, Eastern Region, Ghana. The studied treatments were A (tilapia feed use only), B (catfish feed use only) and C (equal mixture of tilapia and catfish feeds use). The two (2) feeds were declared to contain 40.0% crude protein (CP) each by the producer. The fingerling nursing was conducted in nine (9) fine mesh net hapas, each of dimensions 5.0 x 2.0 x 1.2 m; installed in about a 0.2-hectare earthen pond. The fingerlings of O. niloticus and C. gariepinus, at initial weight ranged between 1.2 and 1.5 g and mean weights 1.34 ± 0.08, 1.31 ± 0.10 and 1.32 ± 0.10 g for treatments A, B and C respectively, were stocked at 60 fingerlings hapa-1 at a ratio of 1:1.  The fingerlings were fed manually at a declining rate of 10.0-4.0% of their biomass hapa-1, 3 times daily. The combined final mean weight ranged from 34.60 ± 1.95 to 38.52 ± 6.00 g. No significant differences (ANOVA, P > 0.05) were observed in growth performance indicators among all treatments. Computed profit indices ranged from 12.74 to 14.97 with that of A being the highest and B, the least. Findings of the study indicated that either tilapia or catfish feed of similar CP contents could be used for composite nursing of O. niloticus and C. gariepinus fingerlings. However, the cheaper one should be opted for; purely for reasons of cost-effectiveness.