| Summary: | Feeding trials were conducted to investigate the growth response, nutrient utilization and the flesh quality of the juveniles of the African catfish, Clarias gariepinus fed with five different dietary protein sources. Five dry diets containing shrimp meal, blood meal, maggot meal, LT 94 fish meal and tilapia meal respectively were prepared and fed to duplicate groups of C. gariepinus juveniles (18.8 ± 0.7 g) to satiation for 70 days. Weight gain, growth response and feed utilization indices, and carcass composition did not vary significantly (P> 0.05) between treatments. Average daily growth was highest (0.93 g) in diet AM1 (fish meal), followed by diet AM5, 0.91 g (maggot meal) and the least (0.83 g) was recorded in diet AM2 (shrimp meal). The highest specific growth rate (SGR) was recorded (0.93) in diet AM1, while the least (0.87) was from diet AM2. Results indicate that diet fortified with fish meal as protein source had the highest final body weight (83.36 g), followed by maggot meal (82.21 g). Diet with shrimp meal gave the poorest average daily growth. The most cost effective diet in terms of cost per unit gain in weight of fish was obtained from maggot meal.
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