The rearing of Clarias gariepinus larvae to juveniles has proved to be challenging due to their small size and a lack of functional digestive system. Due to this fact, it has been found important to provide the larvae with live foods (plankton) before they are sequentially acclimatized to accepting formulated diets. Despite the progress made, larvae rearing remains a bottleneck in production; thus the use of natural live food at earlier stage of fry development seems to be one of the solutions to improve growth performance.

1. Effect of Organic and Inorganic Fertilizers on Natural Food Composition
and Performance of African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) Fry Produced
Under Artificial Propagation
AIM:
To assess the growth performance of the fry reared in chicken manure and
DAP applied tanks at different stocking density
INTRODUCTION:
The rearing of Clarias gariepinus larvae to juveniles has proved to be
challenging due to their small size and a lack of functional digestive system.
Due to this fact, it has been found important to provide the larvae with live
foods (plankton) before they are sequentially acclimatized to accepting
formulated diets. Despite the progress made, larvae rearing remains a
bottleneck in production; thus the use of natural live food at earlier stage of fry
development seems to be one of the solutions to improve growth
performance.
METHODS:
• The study was conducted from March to June 2015 in Morogoro, Tanzania
• Tanks preparation (7m2), fertilization (2kg chicken manure, 42g DAP and No
fertilizer), water sampling and plankton analysis (left to right ).
• Brodstock selection (355g), pituitary gland extraction and eggs
incubation (Left to right).
CONCLUSIONS:
• DAP fertilizer had highest plankton abundance and diversity compared
to chicken manure and no fertilizer application.
• Higher growth performance was recorded at low stocking density
(5fry/m2) across all fertilizer types.
• Hence it is recommended to raise catfish fry in chicken manure
fertilized tanks at low stocking density (5fry/m2) for better growth
performance in aquaculture practices.
Sebastian Mosha1, Jeremiah Kang’ombe2, Wilson Jere2, Nazael Madalla3
1Ministry of Agriculture Training Institute (MATI), Mtwara, Tanzania
2Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries Sciences, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR), Lilongwe, Malawi
3Department of Animal science and Production, Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Morogoro, Tanzania
Figure 3: Average weight of catfish fry reared in tanks fertilized with
different fertilizers at different stocking density in 8 weeks
The average weight was higher in tanks fertilized with chicken manure
under low stocking density (5fry/m2) than higher (10fry/M2) compared
to DAP fertilizer and control in all 8 weeks.
RESULTS:
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
The study was funded by iAGRI, a USAID Feed the Future Program,
through International Programs in Agriculture in collaboration with
RUFORUM
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Averageweightofcatfishfry(g)
Week
5fry per meter square Chicken manure
5fry per meter square DAP
5fry per meter square No fertilizer
10fry per meter square Chicken manure
10fry per meter square DAP
Figure 1: Phytoplankton Abundance per Litre in different types of
fertilizer
Phytoplankton groups were highly significant (P<0.05) in tanks fertilized
with chicken manure and DAP fertilizer compared to control.
0
20000
40000
60000
80000
Chicken manure DAP fertilizer No fertilizer
AbundanceperLitre
Chlorophyta Cynophyta
Euglenophyta Diatomae
Figure 2: Zooplankton Abundance per Litre in different types of
fertilizer
0
500
1000
1500
Chicken Manure DAP Fertilizer No Fertilizer
AbundanceperLitre
Rotifers Copepods Cladocerans
Zooplankton groups had significantly (P<0.05) higher abundance in tanks
fertilized with DAP fertilizer as compared to chicken manure and control.
Table 1: Data collection tools and data analysis
LILONGWE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES (LUANAR)
Data collection tools Data Analysis
Quantitative data • SPSS (Version 20)
• Descriptive statistics
for continuous data