Effects of three agricultural by-products on cage culture growth performances of a landlocked population of Sarotherodon melanotheron (Teleostei: Cichlidae) in man-made Lake Ayame, Côte d\'Ivoire

Abstract

In man-made Lake Ayame, a 180-day cage culture feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effects of three agricultural byproducts — chicken droppings, wheat bran and corn bran — on the survival rates, mean daily weight gain and feed conversion ratio in juveniles of a landlocked population of Sarotherodon melanotheron. Results were compared to those obtained from fishes fed on a local commercial diet and a group of unfed fishes. Survival rate (SR), mean daily weight gain (MDWG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were better for fish fed on the commercial diet (SR: 95.0 ± 4.2%, MDWG: 0.26 ± 0.00 g.d^-1 and FCR: 4.27 ± 0.47) than for the unfed fish (SR: 53.0 ± 0.0% and MDWG: 0.02 ± 0.00g.d^-1). Of the by-products, corn bran resulted in the best mean daily weight gain (0.09 ± .01g.d¹). A significant positive correlation of the dietary dry matter (beta: 0.98), lipid (beta: 0.99), protein (beta: 0.85) and energy (beta: 0.98) levels with the mean daily weight gain was also observed.

Keywords: agricultural by-products, aquaculture, growth, Sarotherodon melanotheron

African Journal of Aquatic Science 2005, 30(2): 125–129