Effects of feeding un-extruded floating feed to African giant catfish (<i>Heterobranchus longifilis</i>)

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of feeding two types of un-extruded floating fish feeds (HM1 and HM2 –38% CP, produced manually using available feedstuffs) and a commercial imported fish feed (Coppens – 40% CP) on growth performance and body composition of Heterobranchus longifilis over 56 days. Commercial imported fish feed was used as the control. The mean final weights of H. longifilis reared on HM1 and HM2 diets were not significantly (P > 0.05) different from fish fed the control diet. The feed conversion ratio (FCR) and specific growth rates (SGR) were similar (P > 0.05) for all diets. Body composition analysis of H. longifilis fed diet HM1 and HM2 showed that protein and lipid contents were not significantly (P > 0.05) different when compared with the control group. These results shows that un-extruded floating feed can be utilized effectively by H. longifilis.Under the experimental conditions described in this study, it can be concluded that the un-extruded feeds do not have any negative impacts on H. longifilis. It is feasible to feed H. longifilis with these feeds without any negative effects on growth performance and body composition of the fish.

Key words: Heterobranchus longifilis, growth, body composition, floating fish feed.