The Replacement Of Fishmeal With Maggot Meal In The Diet Of Cat Fish Clarias Gariepinus Fingerlings

ABSTRACT

Maggot meal production from maggots grown from poultry manure was used in substituting fishmeal in African catfish, Clarias garipinus diet. A feeding trial was carried out for a period of 14 weeks to evaluate the growth parameters using diets in which fishmeal was substituted with maggot meal. The experiment was carried out in a plastic basin and feed three experimental diets which were pelleted at 32% Crude protein. Treatment I (fishmeal based diet), treatment II (fishmeal + maggot meal diet) and treatment III (maggot meal based diet). Proximate analysis of the maggot meal was carried out and the result showed that maggot meal has 93.0% Dry matter, 51.5 Crude protein, 7.0 Crude fibre, Ether extract 20.0% and 11.0 Ash. The mean value of the growth parameters among the three treatments was not significantly different. Treatment III compared to treatment I recorded the greatest increase in weight (188.93g), best FCR (0.23) and best survival rate of (99.47), while treatment II has the highest performance of all. It is concluded that maggot meal is a viable alternative protein source of fishmeal in the diet of African catfish. Its utilization is expected to reduce feed cost drastically, thus leading to a viable and sustainable aquaculture industry.