Growth response of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings fed diet substituted groundnut cake meal and cotton seed meal

L O Tiamiyu, V T Okomoda and B Iber

Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture,
University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria
lottiamiyu@yahoo.com

Abstract

Fingerlings of Clarias gariepinus stocked at 15 fish per hapas were fed five diets with substituted levels of groundnut cake meal (GCM) and cotton seed meal (CSM) (CS100, CS75, CS50%, CS25 and CS00) for 8 weeks. The study reveals the best substituted levels for these feed ingredients to be GCM 50%: 50% CSM (CS50) as the final weight, growth rate, feed conversion and efficiency of feed utilization were better compared to the other substituted levels. This is probably as a result of augmented deficient amino acids in the combination at a level where the individual anti-nutritional factor in both ingredient is tolerable. Therefore, to ensure better feed utilization in Clarias gariepinus, groundnut cake meal and cotton seed meal should be included at 15% level each.

Key words: african catfish, antigrowth factor, feed ingredients, Gossypol

Introduction

Early catfish producers depend primarily on natural pond productivity to provide nutrients for fish growth. Fish production was enhanced by the addition of fertilizers to pond water to stimulate the growth of natural food organism (Robinson and Li 1999) but as aquaculture developed and expanse, supplementary feeding became an important part for higher productivity, and now accounts for at least 60% of the total cost of fish production in Africa, hence, it determines the viability and profitability of fish farming enterprise (Jamu and Ayinla 2003).

Feed ingredients that are rarely consumed by human are highly competed for by the livestock sector (Obun 2008). The high cost, scarcity and insufficient supply of soybean meal has necessitate the need for a search for alternative plants protein ingredients (Daniel 1992). Atteh (1995) suggested that the alternative plant protein source to replace conventional once may have comparative nutritive value or preferably be cheaper than the conventional protein sources, hence locally available and cheap feedstuff are the interest of practitioners in the feed industry.

Several feed ingredients have been investigated in an attempt to find substitutes for soybeans in the diets of fishes. These include plant protein sources such as cottonseed meal, groundnut meal, sunflower, rapeseed, sesame seed, copra, macadamia and palm kernel along with aquatic plants such as Azolla pinnata, duckweed (Lemnaceae) and single-cell proteins (Ogunji 2004). These feeds are not only considerably cheaper than soybeans but also enjoy high availability and accessibility in certain regions of the world especially in Nigeria. Unfortunately, attempts to use these ingredients individually to replace the soybeans component in the diets of farmed Clarias gariepinus have been met with variable success with some leading to reduced feed efficiency and growth largely because of deficient essential amino acid as well as anti-nutritional factor. Since several amino acids are not evenly distributed in feed ingredients, combination of two or more sources with the aim of compensating deficient amino acid might lead to increased growth; hence this study was conducted to determine the best level of combination by which groundnut cake can best substitute cotton seed meal in the diet of African cat fish.

Materials and methods

Diet formulation and preparation

Cottonseed meal, ground nut cake meal, fish meal, rice bran, vitamin and mineral premix and salt, were obtained from Modern market Makurdi and used to formulate five isonitrogenous, isolipidic and isoenergetic diets containing 35% crude protein as shown in Table 1 using Pearson’s square method. In the five diets, fish meal, rice bran, vitamin / mineral premix and salt were kept constant for all diet while cotton seed meal and groundnut cake meal jointly included at 29.12 inclusion level were substituted at various level in the diet and designated as CS100, CS75, CS50%, CS25 and CS00. All ingredients were finely ground and sieved before weighing and were mixed uniformly. Water was added (20%) to the mixture with continuous stirring until a dough was formed. A Pelleting Machine was used to pellet the diets using a 2mm die after which they were sun dried, packaged, and stored in a cool dry place until the commencement of feeding.

Experimental Set up

The study was conducted at the University of Agriculture Makurdi fisheries Research farm, Benue state, Nigeria. Two hundred and fifty (250) Fingerlings of Clarias gariepinus were purchased from the research farm and acclimatized in plastic bowls for two weeks before the start of the experiment. 15 fish were weighed and stocked randomly in duplicate hapas of 1m³ (i.e. 1m x 1m x 1m) partially submerged in 48m³ earthen pond. Fish were hand-fed twice a day (08:00am, and 6:00pm) at a rate of 5% of their body weight. Feeding rates were adjusted weekly for 8 weeks based on the weight gain of each group of fish per week. The formulated diets as well as initial and final carcass of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings were analyzed for proximate composition according to standard methods (AOAC 1990)

Rates of rowth and feed utilization were determined as

Percentage Survival:

Where N_t and N₀are the Number of fish at the end of the experiment and the initial number of fish stocked at the start of the experiment, respectively.

Each experimental diet was fed to two groups of fish in a completely randomized design. Statistical analyses in the present study includes descriptive statistics as well as analysis of variance (ANOVA P<0.05) using a computer software GENSTAT discovery edition 3 from Lawes Agricultural Trust Rothamsted.

Results

The proximate composition of the experimental diets (Table 2) shows that feed fiber content was highest in diet CS100 compared to others, however in diets CS50, CS25 and CS00, fibre values obtained were lowest and comparable to each other. Other proximate parameters reveal statistically uniformism across the diets. The growth performance and nutrient utilization of Clarias gariepinus fed five diets with cotton seed meal and groundnut cake substituted at various levels reveals (Table 3) that the mean final weight was higher in fish fed diet CS50 (76.4) compared to other fed CS75 (72.6) while fish fed CS25 and CS00 were statistically same (60.9) but differ from the least value recorded in those fed CS100 (56.3). Similarly, Weight gain, Specific Growth Rate, Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER) followed the same trend as reported for mean final weight with CS50 having the best performance while CS100 was observed with least values. Percentage survival also favoured fish fed CS50 (96.67) and lowest in CS100 (70.00). The initial and final carcass composition of the experimental fish as presented in Table 4 reveals that Protein was higher in CS50 compared to CS75 and CS00 which were statistically same; however, CS100 and CS75 had the least protein value (17.49 and 16.42 respectively). Moisture, Crude fibre, Nitrogen free extract and Ash were statistically same all through the diet. General observation reveals that carcass protein after the experiment was higher compared to value obtained at the start.

Table 1: feed Composition of the experimental diet fed Clarias gariepinus fingerlings
Ingredients	CS100	CS75	CS50	CS25	CS00
Fish meal	29.12	29.12	29.12	29.12	29.12
Ground nut cake	0.00	7.28	14.56	21.84	29.12
Cotton seed meal	29.12	21.84	14.56	7.28	0.00
Yellow corn	20.14	20.14	20.14	20.14	20.14
Rice bran	20.14	20.14	20.14	20.14	20.14
Vitamin* and mineral premix**	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Salt	0.50	0.50	0.50	0.50	0.50
Total	100.02	100.02	100.02	100.02	100.02
contain (as mg kg-1 of diet): Thiamine (B₁), 85.00; Riboflavin (B₂), 60.00; Pyridoxine (B₆), 25.00; Pantothemic acid, 105.00; Inositol, 500.00; Biotin, 1.80; Folic acid, 20.00; Ethoxyquin, 4.00; Choline, 1481.00; Nicotinic acid (Niacin), 250.00; Cyanocobalamin (B₁₂), 0.03; Retinol palmitate (A), 20.00; Tocopherol acetate (E), 140.00; Ascorbic acid (C), 750.00; Menadione (K), 30.00; Cholecalciferol (D₃), 0.08 (according to Jauncey and Ross 1982) *Contained (as g kg-1 of diet): MgSO₄,7H₂O, 20.40; NaCl, 8.00; KCl, 6.04; FeSO₄,7H₂O, 4.00; ZnSO4, 4H₂O, 0.88; MnSO₄.4H₂O, 0.41; CuSO₄,5H₂O, 0.13;CoSO₄,7H₂O, 0.08; CalO₃, 6H₂O, 0.05; CrCl₃,6H₂O, 0.02 (according to Jauncey and Ross 1982)

Table 2: Diet Composition and Proximate analysis of the experimental diet fed Clarias gariepinus fingerlings.
Parameters	CS100	CS75	CS50	CS25	CS00	P
Moisture	5.31	6.40	6.00	6.01	5.23	0.23
Crude protein	34.6	34.7	34.6	34.9	34.7	0.19
Crude fibre	8.34	7.62	6.34	6.24	6.11	0.06
Ether Extract	7.80	7.56	7.65	6.78	7.76	0.20
Ash	3.66	3.35	3.10	3.23	4.06	0.11
NFE	40.3	41.4	42.4	42.8	42.1	0.09
Means in each row did not differ significantly from each other (p >0.05).

Table 3: Growth performance, feed utilization (per fish) of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings fed the experimental diets for 56 days
Parameters	CS100	CS75	CS50	CS25	CS00	SEM	P
Initial Wt	33.5	33.4	33.6	33.3	33.5	0.39	0.25
Final Wt	56.4^d	72.6^b	76.4^a	60.9^c	60.0^c	8.27	0.001
Wt gain	22.9^d	39.2^b	42.8^a	27.6^c	26.7^c	7.67	0.01
SGR (%day^-1)	0.19^d	0.61^b	0.85^a	0.31^c	0.38^c	0.17	0.04
FCR	2.60^c	2.58^b	1.71^c	3.43^a	3.20^a	0.12	0.01
PER	11.3^c	10.4^c	49.9^a	29.2^b	27.6^b	16.95	0.05
ANPU	17.5^bc	16.4^c	20.3^a	18.3^ab	19.1^a	0.13	0.02
Survival	70.0^d	80.0^b	96.7^a	76.7^c	75.0^cd	8.82	0.05
Means in the same row with different superscripts differ significantly (P<0.05).

Table 4: Initial and Final Carcass analysis of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings fed experimental diets for 56 days
Parameters	Initial	Final
		CS100	CS75	CS50	CS25	CS00	SEM	P
Protein	10.6	17.5^c	16.4^c	20.3^a	18.3^b	19.1^b	0.26	0.03
CHO	4.01	4.30	4.19	4.49	4.21	4.39	0.06	0.27
Ash	1.41	1.51	1.42	1.34	1.24	1.24	0.02	0.17
Fat	3.20	4.38	4.42	3.25	4.34	3.56	0.10	0.08
Fibre	1.35	2.38	2.22	2.45	2.33	2.42	0.07	0.12
Moisture	58.6	53.6	56.1	55.8	54.7	54.8	0.29	0.43
NFE	20.9	16.3	15.5	12.2	14.8	14.5	0.33	0.18
Means in the same row with different superscript differ significantly (P<0.05).

Discussion

The results of the present study shows differences (p<0.05) in growth performance for the fish fed the experimental diets with groundnut cake and cotton seed meal substituted at different levels. The trend of performance observed with fish fed CS00 having more weight gain than those fed CS100 suggest that Clarias gariepinus tolerate groundnut cake meal protein source than cotton seed meal, this may be due to high fiber content of cotton seed meal despite its high protein content, the proximate composition of the experimental diet also reveals this as fiber content was highest in diet CS100 while in diet CS50, CS25 and CS00 values obtained were lowest and comparable to each other. According to Guillaume and Metailler (1999) the astringent taste of saponin which is present in cotton seed meal and it high fibre content could lower feed utilization of fish. It could be inferred therefore that increased digestibility of the feed component in the diets as cotton seed reduced led to better feed utilization, therefore addition of groundnut cake meal reduced fiber content and made feed utilization of cotton seed more efficient, hence fish fed CS75 and CS50 grew better compared to the other diets. Also, it may be rightly said that the anti-nutritional factors in groundnut cake meal has less effect on growth and nutrient utilization in Clarias gariepinus compared to that of cotton seed meal, hence the low survival rate of fish fed with CS100 is perfectly explained by this assumption. Deyab and Amal (2011) in an experiment involving dietary trials with cotton seed on Oreochromis niloticus reported 100% survival, however, tolerance to plant protein source differs with different species, hence the different observed in the result of the two studies. Moreso, deficient amino acid were supplemented as cotton seed inclusion were increased in Deyab and Amal’s (2011) experiment.

CS50 with groundnut cake and cotton seed meal substituted at 50: 50% recorded the highest weight gain. It may be right then to infer that the anti nutritional factors present in groundnut cake (aflatoxin) and cotton seed meal (gossypol) were well tolerable at this level when mixed at 50: 50%, this is in agreement with Lim (2003) who stated that cotton seed meal at this level can be used in fish diet without detrimental effects on growth. More so, the deficient amino acids in one of the feed stuff may have been compensated optimally by the other at this level of substitution. Groundnut cake is deficient in lysine, methionine and tryptophan (Gatlin 1986, Li and Robinson 2006) and is likely to have been balanced by equal amount of cotton seed meal and synthetic supplements included in the diet, however, Lim (2003) reported that at this level of inclusion of cotton seed supplementation of dietary lysine is not needed for some fish species such as channel catfish, hence dietary tolerance of deficient amino acids are species specific.

Best inclusion of cotton seed at 50% level of substitution was observed to be 15%, previous research on cotton seed meal have been met with varied outcome. Toko et al 2007 reported that cottonseed meal could only be successfully included at 30% of the total diets without effects on fish growth performance in the diets of Juveniles African catfish. Similarly, in a study by Toko et al (2008), 30% of dietary cottonseed supplementation produced equivalent growth and feed utilization in Heterobranchus longifilis when compared with Soybean meal and fishmeal based diets. In other studies, Robinson et al (1984) found that 17.4% glandless cotton seed meal (0.49% free gossypol) can be included in channel catfish diets without any adverse effect on growth. However, Robinson (1991) reported that up to 30% cotton seed meal can be included in channel catfish diets. In another study in which channel catfish were cultured at high densities in earthen ponds and fed to satiation with a diet containing 51% cotton seed meal with supplemented lysine(0.65%), the results indicated that the growth rate, dress out percentage and composition of the pellets did not differ from fish fed diets containing soybean meal (42%) (Robinson and Li 1994). Furthermore, Robinson and Tiersch (1995) found that CSM could replace 100% SBM in channel catfish feeds without impeding growth when lysine was supplemented. Cheng and Hardy (2002) reported that cotton seed meal could be used at the 10% inclusion level in diets for juvenile rainbow trout, whereas Luo et al (2006) reported that up to 30.5% solvent-extracted cotton seed meal could be included in the rainbow trout diets. Fowler (1980) found that up to 34% cotton seed meal can be used to replace dietary soybeans without growth depression in two Pacific salmon species. The variance in the results of this experiment from those reported by these authors may be due to the different species involved, dietary supplementation of deficient amino acids as well as feed processing methods

Protein efficiency ratio is a measure of growth using the dietary protein as an index therefore high PER value will be obtained if the weight gain is high compared to the dietary protein intake. In this study, the highest mean PER value was observed in CS50, this may be as a result of the balance in amino acids. Analysis of the fish carcass had more protein retained in the body at the end of the experiment. This suggests that the protein to energy ratio used in the feed was at the right level and as a result there was no sparing of protein for energy. Proximate composition indicated that the moisture, lipid and ash content of carcass of fish were not affected by the dietary substitution; although, there were differences in Crude protein among dietary treatments and highest value was recorded in CS50, This observation is in line with the findings of Deyab and Amal (2011), Cheng and Hardy (2002) and Luo et al (2006).

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