Comparative Study of Growth Performance, Food Utilization and Survival of Hatchery Bred and Wild Collected Fingerlings of African Catfish Clarias gariepinus

Growth performance, food utilization and survival hatchery bred and wild collected fingerlings of African catfish, Clariasgariepinus was carried out as a comparative study with hatchery bred fingerlings for ten weeks in glass aquaria. Duplicate group of 10 with mean bulk weight 45.0 ± 0.0 g were stocked in four aquaria measuring 96 by 50 by 29cm3 labeled A1, A2, B1 and B2. Aquaria A1 and A2 were stocked with hatchery bred fingerlings (10 each) collected from the University of Calabar Hatchery Complex and Aquarium B1 and B2 were stocked with wild fingerlings (10 each) collected from Ayadehe Village (Itu Head Bridge). The experimental fish were fed with Coppens commercial feed twice daily at 5% of their body weight. Growth performance indices showed that weight gain (g), growth rate (GR), specific growth rate (SGR) and mean growth rate (MGR), percentage weight gain and percentage survival of hatchery collected C. gariepinus fingerlings was significantly different (P0.05). Proximate analysis of the experimental feed (Coppens feed) shows that moisture content was (8.23 ± 0.07), crude protein content (42.94 ± 1.34), lipid content (11.57 ± 0.15), crude fibre content (3.53 ± 0.31), ash content (9.42 ± 0.04) and carbohydrate content (24.31 ± 2.10),Physicochemical parameters including pH, water temperature (°C), dissolved oxygen (mg/L) and ammonia (mg/L) were controlled within the acceptable range for fresh water fish culture. The implication of this findings is that hatchery bred fingerlings of C.gariepinus is still the best source of fingerlings supply for fish farmers. It is concluded that fish farmers who still rely on wild fingerlings for fish farming will encounter poor growth performance and negative response to artificial feed leading to stunted fish, increase in culture period and reduction in expected profit margin. Therefore, hatchery bred fingerlings of C.gariepinus is recommended for a successful catfish farming