Abstracto

Use of chicken manure and practical diet in the culture of Oreochomis niloticus.

Augustine Ehireme Okonofua

Experiments were conducted for eight weeks to compare the growth of Oreochromis niloticus by feeding them separately with a nutritionally balanced diet, chicken manure, and a plant protein-only based diet in three concrete tanks. At the end of the study, the fish in tank A fed with the nutritionally balanced diet attained average weight of 112.35 g compared with 120 g for fish in tank B which received poultry manure. But in the third tank C, where all plant protein diet was fed weighed 97.8 g. Fish production extrapolated for an eight month grow-out period was 11594.20 kg/ha in the tank where chicken manure was applied compared with 10806.76 kg/ha in the tank where a practical diet was fed. In the third tank where an all-plant protein diet was fed, fish production was 940.10 kg/ha extrapolated for an eight month grow-out period. Dissolved oxygen in the experimental tanks fluctuated between 5.05 mg/L and 8.65 mg/L, and appeared not to have a factor in the growth of fish. Plankton analysis contained identical plankton but tank B more of spirullina, chorella, mysids, than the other two tanks.