GRADED SUBSTITUTION OF FISHMEAL WITH Citrullus lanatus SEED MEAL ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND HAEMATOLOGY OF Clarias gariepinus.

Abstract

The study assessed the growth performance and haematological condition of Clarias gariepinus fed diets of
fishmeal substitution with graded amounts of raw and processed Citrullus lanatus. The work was carried out in a
completely randomized design with five treatments which were in triplicates. Treatment 1 has no water melon seed
meal inclusion. Treatments 2 and 3 had 5 % and 10% substitution of fishmeal with raw water melon seed meal,
treatments 4 and 5 had 5% and 10% substitution of fishmeal with processed water melon seed meal, respectively.
Fish were fed 5% of their body weight, twice daily. Sampling was done biweekly and feed weights were adjusted
accordingly. The result showed increase in crude protein and reduced fiber content in the processed seed meal
compared to the raw. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) amongst the treatments for pH, temperature
and dissolved oxygen. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) amongst the treatments, for mean weight
gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR), specific growth rate (SGR) and protein efficiency ratio (PER). However,
treatment 4 had a better FCR (1.18) and SGR (2.76) values. Haematological result showed a significant difference
(p<0.05) amongst the treatments except for treatments 1 and 2 for Hemoglobin (Hb) and a significant difference
(p<0.05) amongst all the treatments in packed cell volume (PCV) with treatment 1, the lowest and Treatment 5 the
highest. Red blood cell counts showed no significant difference (p>0.05) between treatments 1 and 2 and between
treatments 4 and 5. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) for total white blood cell counts between
treatments 1, 2 and 5. Substitution of fishmeal with 10% processed C. lanatus meal showed better haematological
condition as well as good growth performance.