THE GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF OREOCHROMIS NILOTICUS L. REARED IN FRESH WATER PONDS LOADED WITH VARYING LEVELS OF POULTRY MANURE

ABSTRACT: This experiment was conducted to study the effects of different levels of poultry manure loading and stocking density on the growth performance of Oreochromis niloticus in ponds. Instantaneous growth rate and total production of groups of fish stocked at a rate of 1 fish/m2, and 2 fish/m2 reared in ponds loaded with 0.5 and 1.0 kg poultry manure were studied over a period of 10 months fish culture. A 0 level of manure loading was considered as a control group. The results obtained showed that the groups of fishes from stocking density of 2 fish/m2 and assigned to the ponds unloaded with poultry manure brought lower mean instantaneous growth rate than the others. Reduction of the stocking density by 50 % and loading ponds with poultry manure resulted in improved fish growth performance. The highest mean instantaneous growth rate was recorded from the groups assigned to l kg of poultry manure and stocked at a rate of 1 fish/m2. However, the highest total fish production (204.54g/m2) was recorded from the 2 fish/m2 stocking density raised in ponds loaded with l kg of poultry manure. Key words/phrases: Growth performance, integrated fish-poultry farming, Oreochromis niloticus L., poultry manure loading, stocking densit