Growth and aquaculture potential of Tilapia jipe, Oreochromis jipe and Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus

Abstract

Aquaculture growth needs to be accelerated in order to bridge the gap in fish demand occasioned by the dwindling stocks in the inland fisheries in Kenya. The 84 days experiment was conducted to compare the growth performance of Jipe tilapia and Nile tilapia, using 180 fingerlings of each species stocked in 9m2 wooden backyard ponds. Feeding was administered daily between 11.00hr and 15.00hr using floating pellets (30% CP) at 10% body weight. Total length and body weight were measured biweekly using measuring board (readability=0.01cm) and electronic balance (readability= 0.001g) respectively, while the survivals were counted during each sampling. All statistical analyses were performed using R software and observed differences considered statistically significant at p