Moringa oleifera (Lam) as a Protein Supplement in Clarias gariepinus Diet

This experiment was carried out to investigate chemical properties of Moringa oleifera and the effects of dietary levels of Moringa oleifera leaves on the growth performance and feed utilization for Clarias gariepinus fry. The study was carried out in aquarium tanks, for a period of 8 weeks, in the months of April-May, 2013, at the Aquaculture Centre of the Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria. Biochemical analyses of samples were performed, at the Animal Science and Central Science Laboratories of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife. The trial diets were fed to triplicate groups (n=30) of C. gariepinus fry (average weight of 2.0g ±0.1). Fish samples were collected and individual weight and length were measured, biweekly. The MWG, FWG and FCR of the fish fed diets M0, M5, M10 were not significantly different (P>0.05) from one another, while these were significantly different (P=.05) from the performance of the fish fed M20 and M30 diets. The DWG and SGR of the Moringa meal-based diets were not significantly different (p>0.05) from any of the dietary treatments. The results indicate that Moringa oleifera leaf meal can be used to replace up to 10% of the fish meal in C. gariepinus fry diet, without adverse effects on survival and growth performance. Whereas, the higher replacing levels in diets significantly (p<0.05) reduced the growth and feed utilization parameters.