Impact of Moringa oleifera, Lannea barteri and Oxytetracycline on the body composition of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings

Abstract

An eight (8) weeks experimental feeding trial was conducted on the impact of plant additives and antibiotic on the carcass composition of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings. Five hundred and forty (540) fingerlings wee randomly distributed into twenty seven re-circulatory tanks in triplicates representing nine dietary treatments. The diets comprised of additive diet (AD); Moringa-Whole (ML), Moringa-Aqueous (MA), Moringa-Ethanol (ME), Lannea-Whole (LW), Lannea-Ethanol (LE), Antibiotic (ATB) and a commercial reference diet (CRD) as control diet. The fish were fed twice daily while water quality parameters were monitored weekly. The results showed that, the carcass composition of the initial based diets (50.30%) and that of antibiotic (ATB) based diets (50.31%) were not significantly different (p>0.05) while the crude protein of all plant additive based diets fed fish carcasses were significantly higher (p<0.05) than the initial-based fed fish carcass. There were no significant differences (p<0.05) between either extract of the initial (24.69%) and CRD (24.27%), LW (24.33%) LA (24.17%) and LE (24.10%) respectively. The ashes of all carcasses of fish fed the experimental diets were not significant differences (p>0.05) from those of the initial. It was concluded that. Plants additives in the diet of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings can enhance carcass composition