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ABSTRACT

Background: The main factor constraining Catfish farming consists of a chronic lack of fingerlings which is mostly due to very low larval survival rates. Objective: In order to alleviate mass mortalities of larvae, zooplanktons were used as preys for Clarias gariepinus larvae. Methods: A completely randomized design was set up to test the effects of separate feeding with copepods, cladocerans, rotifers and a 1:1:1 mixture of the three types for 20 days. Ingestibility, survival and growth were evaluated for pre-defined spanning life stages labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of four days each. Results: Rotifers were more ingested by stage 1 and 2 larvae than cladocerans but stage 3 and 4 larvae ingested more of cladocerans. Larval survivals (100%) were not affected by zooplankton types during stage 1 but were significantly sustained by cladocerans during stage 2, 3, 4 and 5. Only in stage 3 did another zooplankton type, rotifers, stand out as second in sustention of survivals. Larval growth was significantly affected right from stage 1, rotifers, cladocerans and mixtures successively taking turns in excelling each other. Although copepods never excelled, they became increasingly important towards the end of the experiment. Conclusions: These results were discussed to enable a conception of recommendations in view of optimizing protocols for applying zooplanktons as preys for C. gariepinus larvae.
Keywords: Clarias gariepinus larvae, Zooplankton, Ingestibility, Survival, Growth.