Dietary Effects of Oleaginous Microalga on the Fatty Acid Profile and Nutritional Performance of African Catfish, Clarias gariepinus, (Burchell 1822)

Abstract

The Dietary Effects of Oleaginous Microalga on the Fatty Acid Profile and Nutritional Performance of African Catfish, Clarias gariepinus were evaluated in this research in relation to the dietary freshwater microalgae, Botryococcus braunii. Three isocaloric and isonitrogeneous diets with 9% fat and 45% crude protein were developed. Fish meal and oil were the only sources of protein and fat in the first diet; soybean meal and oil were the basis for the second diet; and B. braunii meal was the basis for the third. For every diet, three replicate groups of fish with beginning weights of 11.00±0.05g were employed. For 56 days, fish were hand fed according to their body percentage (5%) weight. Fish fed B. braunii at the end of the feeding trial did not differ significantly (P>0.05) from fish fed fish meal, but they did differ significantly (P<0.05) from fish fed soybean meal. This study demonstrated that C. gariepinus fed a diet based on B. braunii was able to achieve comparable nutritional performance with soybean and fish meal. Furthermore, information on the fatty acid profile indicated that B. braunii might be fed to African catfish in place of fish and soybean oil. The study's findings demonstrated that the dietary microalgae B. braunii was well-digestible and could substitute up to 80% of the fish and soybean oils in the diet of African catfish without having an adverse effect on the fish growth or fatty acid composition.