Evaluating the impact of <i>Moringa oleifera</i> (Linnaeus, 1753) and <i>Eucalyptus globulus</i> (L’ Heritier (1789) leave extract on <i>Clarias gariepinus</i> fingerlings’ growth

Abstract

The need to improve quality of aquafeed that would bring about higher aquaculture yield has
attracted attention for the inclusion of Plant materials into fish feed. This study investigated
the inclusion of Moringa oleifera and Eucalyptus globulus leaf extracts into the diets of Clarias gariepinus fingerings. A feeding trials of 56 -days duration was involved in this study. The feeding trial was made of eight isonitrogenous 40%CP diets comprising sixexp erimental diets, a control diet (ZSD) and a reference commercial diet (CRD). Three of the six diets had each with 2% inclusion level of any two out of the aqueous, ethanol and hexane extracts of Moringa leaf at 1:1 ratio. The remaining three diets had similar combination of Eucalyptus leaf extracts. The experiment was conducted in a Completely Randomise design (CRD) made of eight treatments. The experimental set-up was conductedin flow-through system made of 50 litres plastic basins and each treatment made in triplicates. Results of the feeding trials indicated significant differences (P<0.05) among each of the growth and feed utilization parameters evaluated from the treatments. The control diets and the reference diets gave better growth of the fingerlings and feed utilization efficiency than the experimental diets. The control diet had 42.68% higher specific growth rate (SGR) than the top performing Eucalyptus-extract base diet (EHEA) and 43.81% than the top performing Moringa-extract base diet (MAME). Possible reason for the poor performance might be attributed to the inclusion level of the Eucalyptus extracts been higher than 1% established optimum level in an earlier study. Equally, poor performance of the Moringa extracts inclusion might be due to the relatively low level of its inclusion in the present study compared with better results recorded from some earlier studies with higher inclusion levels. Further study is hereby recommended into the possible impact of the extraction solvents used in this study on the poor growth recorded.