Effects of intermittent feeding regimes on growth performance and economic benefits of Amur catfish (Silurus asotus)

A study was conducted to determine the growth performance and economic viability of culturing Amur Catfish (Silurus asotus) using four different feeding regimes: Every-day feeding (EDF), Every two-days feeding (ETDF), Tertian feeding (TF) and Quartan feeding (QF) for 65 days. Twenty fingerlings of sizes between 2-3 grams each were randomly distributed in 12 glass aquaria and assigned to each of the feeding regime in triplicates. Fish were fed on commercial feed (Woosung feed) containing 50% crude protein. Highest specific growth rates (SGR) (5.15 ±0.06%) was recorded in EDF with significance differences in all treatments (P ˃ 0.05). Feed conversion ratio (FCR) was significantly lower in TF (P ˂ 0.05) while survival rate ranged from 83.33% to 96.67% and was not significantly different among the treatments (P > 0.05). The length-weight relationship (LWR) analysis indicated that the regression slope b values were not significantly different (P > 0.05) among the treatments. Partial enterprise budget analysis of S. asotus using different feeding regimes indicated that net returns above total costs were significantly higher in EDF (P ˂ 0.05). This shows that every day feeding to satiation is the best feeding regime to be adopted for economic benefits of rearing Amur catfish.

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