Probiotics (Bacillus subtilis and B. cereus) Performances as anti-stress on catfish (Clarias anguilaris) fingerlings during transportation and post-transportation conditions

Abstract

The study investigated the performances of B. subtilis and B. cereus on catfish (C. anguillaris) fingerlings as potential anti-stress administered at the rate of 30 mgl-1. Although, there were fluctuations of the physico-chemical parameter of the water during the transportation; there was no significant difference (p≥0.05) throughout. There were significant differences (p≤0.05) in the survival of fingerlings treated with both B. subtilis (97.39±1.0%) and B. cereus (98±0.73%) during the transportation. The cumulative survival of fingerlings treated with B. subtilis, before, during and post-transportation was lower (93.92%) than the control, but growth gain was highest (1.6 g) with Specific Growth Rate of 0.27g. Fingerlings treated with B. cereus, recorded 98% cumulative survival, having weight and length gain of 0.9 g and 0.9 cm and specific growth of 0.15% higher than the control group. So, B. cereus performed better in survivability, while, B. subtilis did better in the growth performance. The pH and EC in water treated with both isolates, the T OC and DO for B. subtilis and TDS for B. cereus increased steadily with significant differences (p≤0.05), while the rest recorded higher values at the middle of transportation, but, all were within the optimum values for raising catfish.