Growth performance of red breasted tilapia (coptodon rendalli) fed maize bran and Amaranthus hybridus leaves under pond culture | ||
| Mediterranean Aquaculture Journal | ||
| Article 4, Volume 9, Issue 1, 2022, Pages 38-45 PDF (467.69 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/maj.2022.135806.1011 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Edwin Kikamba* ; Jeremiah Kang'ombe | ||
| Department of Fisheries, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, Lilongwe, Malawi | ||
| Abstract | ||
| : A study was carried out to evaluate the effect of substituting Amaranthus hybridus leaves for maize bran as feed on growth of juvenile Coptodon rendalli. Fresh chopped Amaranthus hybridus (100%) and dried milled maize bran (100%) and mixture of fresh chopped Amaranthus hybridus and maize bran (50:50) were given as different dietary treatments. The three diets were fed to triplicate groups of fish fingerlings (9.68±0.16 g) stocked in 100m2 ponds and fed at 5% of body weight for 84 days. The diets of Amaranthus hybridus, maize bran and combination of Amaranthus hybridus and maize bran produced insignificantly differences (P>0.05) in final weight gain, where with Amaranthus hybridus producing average weights of 33.57 ± 1.15 g, Maize bran with average weights of 31.01 ± 1.05 g and a combination producing average weight of 34.42 ± 1.15g. The Apparent feed conversion ratios and Specific growth rates (SGR) didn’t significantly differ (P>0.05) among the treatments. There were also no significant differences (P>0.05) in total lengths at termination of (84 days) and it ranged from 120.72±0.14 mm to 124.83±0.10 mm whose stocking mean length ranged from 81.55±0.31 mm to 82.87±0.21 mm. Survival rates ranged from 98.70% to 99.96% and didn’t differ significantly (P>0.05) among treatments. These results indicate that the feeding of Coptodon rendalli with only Amaranthus hybridus or Maize bran or a combination of Amaranthus hybridus and Maize bran produce a similar result. The present study demonstrates that in the event that maize bran is unavailable, Amaranthus hybridus can substitute it as fish feed or its combination would produce similar results. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Aquaculture; Coptodon rendalli; Amaranthus hybridus; Maize bran; Feed conversion ratio | ||
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