The Estimation of the Economic Protein Requirement of Hybrid Clarias Catfish

Abstract

Specific growth data obtained from feeding hybrid Clarias catfish (C. macrocephalus x C. gariepinus) in 80-L glass aquaria with each of five isocaloric diets (280 Kcal/100g) contained protein ranged from 25 to 45% in 5% increment for 10 weeks was used in the present study. The data was subjected to the quadratic regression analysis to estimate to estimate the economic protein requirement of the fish. It was found that dietary protein at 41% resulted in maximum growth of the fish. However, the maximum economic returns were obtained when dietary protein ranged from 33-36% or at 33.2% when current cost of commercial catfish feed and value of catfish were used for the calculation.