Nutritive potential of sweet potatoes peel meal and root replacement value for maize in diets of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) advanced fry

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the potential of Sweet Potato Peel (SPP) meal as a cheaper replacement for maize in the diet of Clarias gariepinus. Triplicate groups of 20 fish per plastic tank with average weight of 0.64±0.1 g per fish were fed four (4) diets, which were formulated to contain graded levels of sweet potato peel meal replacing 0, 25, 50 and 75 % of maize. The feeding trial lasted 6 weeks. The results showed that the diets did not significantly (p<0.05) affect fish performance within the treatments. Percentage Weight Gain (PWG) was 101.54% in fish fed with the control diet (0% sweet potato peel meal). The highest (PWG) of 150.77% was recorded in fish fed diets containing 25% sweet potato peel meal followed by a consistent decrease in PWG with increasing inclusion of sweet potato peels meal. However, diets containing 25, 50 and 75% SPP meal performed better than the control experiment with PWG of 150.77, 132.31 and 127.6%, respectively. The highest Feed Conversion Efficiency (FCE) was observed in the diet containing 25% SPP meal. A steady decrease in FCE was observed with increasing inclusion of SPP meal at 50 and 75%. Meanwhile, all the diets with SPP meal inclusion performed better than the control diet containing 0% SPP. The data indicated that Clarias gariepinus effectively tolerated diets containing sweet potato peel meal at low levels of concentration while fish growth performance and utilization decreased with increase in the sweet potato peel meal inclusion. The SPP meal based diets were cheaper than the control diet. The consequent better FCE and PWG of fish fed SPP diets showed that cost can be reduced while maintaining a high yield.