Evaluation of the Influence of Sex Composition on the Growth, Survival, and Cannibalistic Behavior of African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) Juveniles

Significant losses due to cannibalism are one of the issues in farming predatory fishes like African catfish. In this study, the influence of sex composition on the cannibalistic behavior of African catfish was analyzed along with the growth and survival. There were two treatments and control for the experiment namely, all-male group (masculinized), all-female group (feminized), and mix-sex culture. The highest percentage of cannibalism was observed in the masculinized group (T1) with 40.67 ± 7.02% compared with the feminized group (20.67 ± 1.15%) and control group (32.0 ± 11.13%). However, no significant difference between the control group and the masculinized group existed. In terms of survivability, the feminized group has the highest percentage (79.33 ± 1.15%) of survival compared to the masculinized group (59.33 ± 7.02%) and control (68.0 ± 11.13%). Similarly, there was no significant difference between the masculinized group and control group. In terms of aggressive behavior, the highest (p<0.05) percentage of aggressiveness was observed among all male African catfish (38.72 ± 6.79%) as compared to all females (28.83 ± 6.71%) and mixed groups (35.67 ± 7.95%). At the end of the experiment, the masculinized group achieved the highest (p<0.05) average final weight of 40.16 ± 3.22g followed by the feminized group (35.41 ± 3.0g) and control (34.23 ± 2.93g). Likewise, the masculinized group also showed the highest (p<0.05) SGR with 7.46 ± 0.08compared to both the feminized group 7.14 ± 0.02 and the control 7.07 ± 0.05. The results proved that all male African catfish have better growth than all-female group, however, male African catfish exhibit more aggression and cannibalistic behavior compared to females.