Effects of Substitution of Fishmeal with Bambaranut Meal on Growth and Intestinal Microbiota of African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus)

Abstract

Substitution of fishmeal with plant protein is trending but there had been no study ofits effects on catfish gut microbial communities. We made Five isonitrogenous(44.29±0.45%) and isoenergetic (2747.24±0.09 kcal) diets labelled as feed 1 (F1) tofeed 5 (F5). The feeds varied in composition of fishmeal (FM) with bambaranut meal(BNM), as: F1, 65:0, F2, 45:5, F3, 25:25, F4, 5:45, and F5, 0:65. There was a control dietF6. The diets were fed to Clarias gariepinus distributed into three replicate aquaria at15 fish per aquarium. Feed 4 (F4) had the best specific growth rate (SGR, 7.03±0.03%day-1), which was better than F3, with SGR, 6.77±0.08% day-1 and 65% fishmeal dietF1, with SGR 6.67±0.06% day-1(P