ABSTRACT

This study was undertaken to assess the potential for including mucuna meal as a partial replacement for locally available fish meal in diets for Oreochromis niloticus (L.). Seven groups o± fish were fed prescribe diets at 4% body weight once a day for 56 days. The water temperature and p remained essentially the same during the experiment at 29°C and 6.8 respectively. Fish meal was the only source of supplemental protein in the control rati(i.e diet 1). Diets 2, 3 and 4 had part of the fishmeal replaced with 10%, 20% and 30% raw mucuna beans respectively while diets 5, 6 and 7 had. part of the fishmeal replaced with 10$, 20% and 30$ processed mucuna respectively0 After 56 days of feeding with the experimental diets, it was found that the percentage weight gain and specific growth rate of the fish fed the control diet and the test (mucuna) diets were not statistically different, (p>O.05). however it was foirn that the percentage weight gain and specific growth rate of the fish fed raw mucuna was inversely related to the dietary levels, while on the other hand, weight gain and specific growth rate of the fish fed processed muouna was directly related to the dietary levels. Fish fed with diet 2 (i.e 10$ raw mucuna) performed better than others fed diets with mucuna and also surprisingly better than those fed with the control diet. The results suggest that there is potential for including mucuna in diets for Q. nioticus0 The poorer performance of Q. nioticus fed with treated mucuna may indicate deficiencies of one or more essential amino acids and minerals that possibly can be corrected through appropriate dietary supplementation.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE i

TITLE OF THESIS ii

DECLARATION iii

CERTIFICATION iv

DEDICATION v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT vi

ABSTRACT vii

 TABLE OF CONTENTS viii

LIST OF TABLES: TABLE 1 11

TABLE 2 12

TABLE 3 21

TABLE 4 22

TABLE 5 23

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1

 CHAPTER TWO • 4

LITERATURE REVIEW 21:

Origin and Distribution of mucuna 4 2.2:

Botanical Description of mucuna 4 2.3:

Taxonomy of mucuna 5 2.4:

Composition of the mature mucuna seed 5 25:

 Detoxification techniques 7 26:

Various Material used as tilapia feed 8 27:

 Legumes used as tilapia feed. 8 2.8:

 Treatment Mucuna is subjected 9

CHAPTER TEE 10

Materials and Methods 10

Experimental fish 10

Experimental diets 10

Analytical procedures .. 13

CHAPTER FOUR 20

RESULTS 20

CHAPTER FIVE 24

DISCUSSION 24

SUMMARY 27

 REFERENCES 28

APPENDIX 32