Comparison on the Efficacy of Different Carbohydrates Energy Sources for Hybrid Clarias Catfish Fingerlings (Clarias macrocephalus X gariepinus)

Abstract

Seven isocaloric diets (4.6 kcal/g.) with approximately 35% protein and 44.3% carbohydrate from either sucrose, dextrin, corn starch, wheat flour. Rice starch, glutinuos rice starch and manoic starch were used to compare on their efficacy as energy sources for hybrid Clarias catfish. The diets were fed to apparent satiation twice daily to three replicates of 20 fish (3 g each) kept in 80-L glass aquaria for 4 weeks. Specific growth rate of fish fed with wheat flour diet (9.33%/d) was superior (P<0.05) to those of fish fed with other diets (8.2-8.8%/d), which were not significantly different (P>0.05). Feed conversion ratio (1.0-1.4), protein efficiency ratio (2.0-2.6), protein gain (33-43%), energy gain (22-33%) and carcass compositions for all dietary treatments did not differ (P>0.05) The study was concluded that wheat flour is the best for promoting growth of hybrid Clarias catfish. This is possibly due to higher protein content (13-14%) of wheat flour per se. Besides wheat flour, hybrid Clarias catfish can equally utilize sucrose, dextrin, corn starch, glutinous rice starch and manoic starch as energy sources with high efficacy.