Effect of Fermented Wheat Bran on the African Mud Catfish Clarias gariepinus Fingerlings

This work is a further attempt at trying to proffer solution to the teething problem of high cost and quality fish feed for the aquaculture industry in Nigeria. Here fermented wheat bran was used to replace fish meat at four graduated levels –15%, 30%, 45% and 60% respectively. 0% substitution remained as the control. These trials feed where tested on the African mud catfish, Clarias gariepinus fingerlings for 56 days.  Parameters evaluated include nutritional value, digestibility, and body composition of the fish. The results indicated that the 30% fishmeal substitution diet (FWB₂) showed superior performance in terms of the parameters used for nutritional value such as mean weight gain (2.92g) specific growth rate (7.42cm); percentage weight gain PWG (84.5) and Nitrogen metabolism (903.48) at the end of the experiment. However, the body composition indicated a high fat level and lowest fibre content compared to other treatments.  The ADC values take the following trend; FWB_o (95.65)>FWB₃ (94.83)> FWB₂ (94.55)> FWB₁ (92.76) > FWB₄ (85.63).  Further investigation is needed