Larval production of Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822) fed with freeze-dried chicken egg yolk, quail egg yolk, guinea fowl egg yolk, and turkey egg yolk: growth performance, survival rate and economic profitability

Poultry eggs are considered an affordable and economical source of protein and energy available even in rural areas. The goal of this study was to assess and compare the effects of four different egg yolks on the growth performance and economic profitability of Clarias gariepinus larvae after vitelline resorption (3 days post hatch (DPH). Five experimental diets were tested. The control treatment (T0) consisted of Artemia cysts (zooplankton), while the other treatments included chicken egg yolk (T1), quail egg yolk (T2), guinea fowl egg yolk (T3), and turkey egg yolk (T4). The experimental design was a completely randomized design of 5 treatments with 3 replicates. The experiment lasted for 12 days. The larvae were fed five times a day. Interval sampling was conducted every four days. Growth parameters showed that treatment T0 (Artemia-fed larvae) achieved the highest biomass increase, rising significantly from 1006.66 ± 3.33 mg to 3533.33 ± 145.29 mg over the 12-day experimental period. Treatments T2 (quail egg yolk) and T4 (turkey egg yolk) demonstrated intermediate growth performance, while T1 (chicken egg yolk) and T3 (guinea fowl egg yolk) exhibited the lowest biomass gains, ranging from 1006.66 ± 6.66 to 1433.33 ± 33.33 mg and 1010.00 ± 2.88 to 1866.66 ± 66.66 mg, respectively. Survival rates showed no significant differences among T0, T2, and T4 (P > 0.05). Although T0 exhibited superior growth performance, it incurred a significantly higher economic conversion ratio, indicating increased feed cost per unit of biomass produced (P < 0.05). These findings suggest that while Artemia supplementation promotes rapid growth, its higher cost may affect overall economic efficiency compared to alternative egg yolk-based diets. Given the results on growth and survival performances as well as economic profitability, freeze-dried quail egg yolk and turkey egg yolk can be recommended for better optimization of C. gariepinus larval breeding mainly in rural conditions.