Partial Replacement of Fish Meal With Blood Meal in Diets of Clarias Gariepinus (pisces: Clariidae) Fingerlings in Mubi, Nigeria: Effects on Growth, Survival and Cost

The research was designed to determine the effects of partial replacement of fishmeal with blood meal on the growth and survival of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings in Mubi, Nigeria. The experiment was conducted at the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Adamawa State University, Mubi, Nigeria, using the test diets D1=BM100% + FM0%, D2=BM75% + FM25%, D3=BM50% + FM50%, D4=BM25% + FM75% and D5=BM0% + FM100%. Each diet was fed to 60 fingerlings replicated into 3 (20 per tank). Growth performances were obtained using weight gain, length gain, Specific Growth Rate SGR and Feed Conversion Ratio FCR and survival rate. Weight gain was best in D5 (207.48±48.1) and least in D3 125.45±48.1, the best length gain was recorded in D5 (1.46±0.17) and least in D3 (0.55±0.17), the best Feed Conversion Ratio was found in D2 (1.81± 0.38) and least in D4 (0.70±0.38), Specific Growth Ratio was best in D5 (4.71±2.51) and least in D3 (2.85±2.51) and the highest survival was in D1 (81.67±10.6) and lowest in D3 (55.00±10.8). Water quality parameters were also observed with pH ranging from (8.23±0.07 - 8.78±0.07), temperature (16.13±3.41 - 18.50±3.41), D.O (5.53±0.04 - 6.03±0.04) and finally Ammonia (0.16.0.08 - 0.17±0.08). The cost benefit of this research indicated that D1 was the cheapest while D5 was the most expensive. It was concluded that blood meal is a suitable protein source which can be used in the diets of C. gariepinus because of the significant differences observed in the diets. It is therefore recommended that fish farmers use Blood meal to partially or completely replace fish meal in C. gariepinus diets. Further studies to determine the long term effect on the performance of fish fed the fish meal replacement diet is suggested.