Effect of leaf powder of giloy (Tinospora cordifolia) in fish feed on survival and growth of post larvae of Catla catla

The study was designed to evaluate the effect of leaf powder of Giloy (Tinospora cordifolia) in fish feed on survival and growth of post larvae of Catla catla. The experiment consisted of five treatments (T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5) in triplicate. The artificial feed was prepared from de-oiled groundnut cake (49.5%), de-oiled rice bran (49.5%) and vitamin – mineral mixture (1%). The leaf powder of giloy was incorporated into larval feed at various rates. In treatment T1 (control), no leaf powder was incorporated in the feed. In T2, T3, T4 and T5 leaf powder was mixed at the rate of 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75% and 1%, respectively. One hundred post larvae of C. catla of uniform size (7.3 mm length, 1.5 mg weight) were stocked in each of 5×3=15 tanks. The larvae were fed twice in a day. The water quality parameters were regularly monitored. The survival rate of post larvae in T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 were recorded as 95.3, 94.3, 97.0, 98.6 and 100%, respectively. Post larvae fed with diet incorporated with 1% leaf powder achieved significantly enhanced (P< 0.05) specific growth rate (6.97%), feed conversion ratio (2.41) and gross conversion efficiency (0.415). The study revealed that giloy leaf powder has very good growth promoting potential in raising post larvae of carp. Thus, it is recommended that the leaf powder of giloy may be incorporated in fish feed upto 1% for enhancing growth and survival of post larvae of carp fishes up to fry stage