Acceptability, Growth Performance and Cost Analysis of Diets Enriched with Lipids from Varied Plants and Animal Sources Fed to Fingerlings of Clarias gariepinus (Teleostei, Clariidae) Burchell, 1822

The acceptability of diet, growth performance and cost benefit analysis of C. gariepinus fed varied diets enriched with dietary lipids from plant and animal sources was investigated. The acceptability of diets enriched with lipids was investigated using the “time to strike and acceptability index.” The growth potentials and survival of C. gariepinus fed varied dietary lipid, were investigated using “weight gain, specific growth rate and normalized biomass index.” The combined effects of diets fortified with either animal or plant lipids on diet acceptability, growth and survival of C. gariepinus, were studied. Furthermore, the cost benefit of feeding C. gariepinus fingerlings with diet enriched with varied lipid types was established. Results indicated that enrichment of C. gariepinus fingerlings diets with lipids enhances the acceptability of the diet, the best acceptable diet being olive oil enriched diet. The acceptability of diets enriched with olive oil, cow fat and pig fat were statistically not significantly different. Although, olive oil diets were easily accepted, with regards to weight gain, growth induction and survival the pig fat enriched diets performed best when compared with other lipid fortified diets. All lipid enriched diets had significantly different weight gain (p < 0.05), specific growth rate (p < 0.05) and survival rate (p < 0.05) than the control diet. Although lipid enhanced diets were better than those without lipid in C. gariepinus, animal lipid enriched diets had better acceptability index, weight gain, specific growth rate and survival than plant lipid fortified diets. The cost benefit analysis revealed that both pig and goat fats had better comparative and effective cost per unit weight gain. Key words: Diet, fingerlings, Clarius gariepinus Bio-Research Vol.1(2) 2003: 87-9