Effects of feeding frequency variation on the growth and survival of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings

A 56-day experiment was conducted to consider the effects of feeding frequency variation on the growth and survival of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings. The frequencies of feeding were once daily, twice daily, once in two days and once in three designated as G1, G2, G3 and G4 respectively. One hundred and twenty fingerlings were stocked into 30 litre plastic aquaria with each tank stocked with ten fingerlings in three replicates under laboratory conditions. A commercial feed was used for the feeding trials with the fingerlings fed at 5% body weight. The fingerlings fed once in three days had the least value of weight and length but were not significantly different (p<0.05). The fingerlings fed once daily had the highest specific growth rate (SGR) of 1.66 and the fingerlings fed once in three days had the least value, which was significantly different from others. Highest survival rate of 73.3% was recorded in fingerlings fed once in two days. The study showed that body composition of C. gariepinus fingerlings was influenced by the different feeding frequencies. Based on the growth performance recorded in this research, once in a day feeding frequency was the best to obtain the highest growth while once in 2 days feeding frequency gave the best survival value in the African catfish fingerlings.Keywords: Feeding frequency, Growth, Survival, Clarias gariepinus