GROWTH OF Clarias gariepinus JUVENILES FED FIVE COMMERCIAL FEED

Clarias gariepinus juvenile’s 6.35±0.22g weights were fed five different commercial diets for 105 days to determine growth rates. Diets were hand distributed in triplicate groups of 30 fish once daily. The diets used were Coppens, Multifeed, Eurogold, Vittal and Ajanla feed. At the end of the experiment, the final mean SL for Coppens, Multifeed and Eurogold were 181.54±0.63, 179.92±0.95g and 139.92±0.26g respectively, while final mean weight for Vittal and Ajanla were 110.11±0.23g and 119.03±0.35g respectively. The statistical analysis of the results showed that there were significant differences (P<0.05) in the mean final weights. Also there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the mean final between Coppens and Multifeed. The specific growth rates (SGR) were 3.19day^-1 3.18 day^-1 and 2.94 day^-1 for Coppens Multifeed and Eurogold respectively and 2.71 day^-1 and 2.78 day^-1 respectively for Ajanla and Vittal. There were significant differences (P<0.05) in SGR among treatments and no significant difference (P>0.05) between SGR of Coppens and Multifeed. Based on these findings, it was concluded that feed with macronutrient combinations of 45% CP, 12% crude fat, crude fiber, 1.5%, Ash 9.5% promoted better growth rates in C. gariepinus juveniles as compared with other combinations.