Abstract Full Text:PDF Recommended articles Mail to Author How to Cite

¹ Department of Biological sciences, Olabisi Onabanjo University, P.M.B. 2002, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria
² Department of Zoology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
³ Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
⁴ Department of Agricultural Science, Federal College of Education, Osiele, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria Viewed : 4488 - Downloaded : 3641 The effect of feeding Clarias geriepinus fingerlings with diets supplemented with soybeans was studied for 56 days. Two of the soybeans were heat treated for 30 and 60 minutes, the third was toasted (for 10 minutes) and the fourth was raw soybean (control). Fish of an initial mean body weight of 2.36±0.67g were grown to a final mean body weight of 6.18±0.94g at a temperature of 25.0±1.23°C, pH 6.18±0.73 and dissolved oxygen 5.5±2.54g. The diets used additionally contained blood meal, cassava flour, red palm oil, vitamin/mineral premix and chromic oxide. Fish fed diets that were heat treated for 60 minutes had the highest percentage of weight gain, feed conversion ration, protein efficiency ratio, specific growth rate, apparent protein utilisation and digestibility. The fish carcass protein in all dietary treatments (diet₁ = 58.59, diet₂ = 58.63, diet₃ = 57.98 and diet₄ = 57.92) was higher than the initial carcass protein (56.75), thereby confirming the potential of incorporating soybeans in fish feed formulation. Keywords : dietary, soybeans, growth, body composition, C. gariepinus