Growth Response, Feed Utilization And Survival Of Fingerlings Of Heterobrancliiis Longjflhis Fertilized With Poultry Droppings And Cowdung.

ABSTRACT

The study was carried out to evaluate the effect of chicken droppings and

cow dung on the growths, feed utilization and survival of fingerlings of H.

ion gfulis for 8 weeks. The experiment was conducted at Michael Okpara

University of Agriculture Umudike fish farm using three tanks of (0.80in X

0.86m X 0.5511]) for three treatments. Each tank was stocked with 13

fingerlings v'eighing 90 grams each mean weight and fed with the

supplementary feed procured from African Regional Aquaculture Centre

(ARAC) Port Harcourt. Tank I was fertilized with cow dung and fed with

supplementary feed, while tank 11 was fertilized with poultry dropping also

fed with supplew ntary feed while tank III had no manure but only fed with

supplementary fcid. The tanks I and II were fertilized at the rate of 0.15kg

per m2each over a period of 8 weeks and the fish were fed two times a day

at 5% body weight. The weights of the fish were taken forth nightly (two

weeks) to evaluate the growth rate, feed utilization aiid survival. From the

results obtained, tank ii (poultry dropping) showed the highest mean growth

rate (0.08±0.02), protein efficiency ratio (0.52), specific growth rate

(1.83%) and survival rate of (98±0.0%), followed by tank 1 (0.06±0.04),

protein efficiency ratio (0.45), specific growth rate (1.68%) and mean

survival rate (82±2.0%) lastly control (0.05±0.01) Protein efficiency ratio

(0.38), specific growth rate (1.57%), and mean survival rate (51±4.0%). It

was observed that the organic manure did not degrade the phiysio-chemical

parameters (temperature, pFI, and dissolved oxygen) of water.