Response of catfish Heterobranchus bidorsalis to cultured zooplankton and decapsulated artemia in the Niger Delta Nigeria

Abstract

Study examined starter feed for Heterobranchus bidorsalis. Mixed zooplankton populations consisting of Daphnia and Moina species were isolated in a tank; sterilised 30 kg pig dung was used to maintain the culture. Decapsulated artemia (500g) was used. Heterobranchus bidorsalis fries were produced by hypophysation, stocked in duplicate at each three trials labelled as A1, A2 and B1, B2. Zooplankton was used to feed treatment A while decapsulated artemia was used to feed treatment B at ad- libitum, two ways Anova with Duncan multiple range test was used. The mean survival rate, specific growth rate and change in length and weight for the fish were found to be 78.8%, 8.06% 1.60 cm and 0.022g for the zooplankton fed fish and 82.0%, 6.25%, 1.17 cm and 0.17g for the artemia fed fish. The use of Zooplankton was found to give better results compared to the use of decapsulated artemia.