Growth Performance Of Catfish (Clarias Gariepinus) Fed Sun – Dried Housefly Maggot Meal (Musca Domestica)

This study was to investigate the growth performance of catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fed sun-dried maggot meal and concentrate feed (Coppens).This experiment was aimed at testing the sole feeding of housefly maggot to fish in order to replace concentrate feed completely, thereby reducing the cost of production.This study was completely randomized and had two treatments and three replicates.Student T-test was used to compare the growth parameters and water quality parameters measured.The result of growth showed that mean weight gain of 1.43g and 1.91g for maggot meal and concentrate feed (coppens feed) respectively was not statistically significant at P<0.05.It also revealed that there was an increase in length of fish with mean values of 6.04cm and 6.61cm for maggot and coppens feed respectively.Length gains of 2.94cm and 3.51cm for maggot and coppens respectively, was not statistically significant at p <0.05.Similarly, the mean specific growth rate (SGR) of 1.07 and 1.27 for maggot meal and coppens, feed intake of 3.25 and 3.25, the feed conversion of 1.33 and 1.12 respectively were not statistically significant (P>0.05).Among all the mean physico-chemical attributes of the pond water only nitrite varied significantly (P<0.05).A significantly (P<0.05) drop in performance of fingerlings fed solely maggot meal after 3 months of age.From the results obtained, it can be inferred that maggot-based meal can be a perfect substitute for concentrate feed in the culture of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fingerlings that are less than 3 months of age.The use of housefly sun-dried maggot only to feed young catfish (Clarias gariepinus.) between the age of 0-3 months of age is highly recommended to reduce the cost of production.