Effect Of Different Dietary Items On The Growth Of African Catfish Hybrid Heterobranchus Bidorsalis (♂) X Clarias Gariepinus

This paper describes the growth response of the developmental stages of hybrid catish resulting rom the crossing of Heterobranchus bidorsalis (male) and Clarias gariepinus (female), fed with different feed rations. Hatchlings of the hybrid catfish were cultured in plastic aquaria set up at thefish hatchery complex, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The hatchlings were fed and observed for91 days. Different food items such as artificially compounded feed, zooplankton / live organisms Moina sp and Brachionus sp, and a mixture of zooplankton (Moina sp and Brachionus sp) and artificially compounded feed were administered. The mixture gave the best result with a mean weight o 792g ±2.73g folowed by those fed Moina sp (1.93g± 0.27) and Brachionus sp (1.80g ±0.32) respectively. Hatchlings fed only artificially compounded feed exhibitedthe poorest growth. A mixture of live food organisms and artcially compounded feed is thus recommended for better growth response of catfish hybrid, (H. bidorsalis ♂ x C. gariepinus ♀). Keywords: Catfish hybrid, Hatchlings, Juveniles, Diet, GrowthAnimal Research International Vol. 4 (2) 2007 pp. 662-66