Influence of extruded feed and additional feed materials - fulvic mineral complex on the growth intensity, feed conversion and meat quality of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus)

Work Aim: To investigate the influence of extruded feed and additional feed material - fulvic mineral complex on the growth intensity, feed conversion and meat quality of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus). Work tasks: 1. To determine the growth intensity of the investigated and control groups of fish, feed conversion, physico-chemical properties of meat, to calculate and compare the indices of anatomical parts. 2. To determine the influence of feed on the length of African catfish intestinal lobes. Results obtained: During the all research, the feed efficiency of both groups for the growth of African catfish was similar. In the last feeding stage, the study group gained 2,6 proc. more weight. The feed conversion of the experimental group is on average 3 proc. lower than control group. Test group of African catfish have a lower internal organ weight index, what means a higher edible meat output. According to the length of the intestinal lobes, the digestion of nutrients in the experimental group of fish is much more efficient, because their intestinal lobes are 15,4 proc. longer than in the control group. In terms of meat color, the meat of the fish in the test group was inferior as it was 8,44 proc. lighter than the control. Darker meat is more culinaryly valuable. The water content of the meat of the experimental fish group was 22,5 proc. higher than of the control group. Water binding was 1,34 proc. higher in the study group, with lower boiling losses. Experimental group of African catfish are more valuable because they obtained 18,2 proc. more fat and 3,4 proc. more dry matter