Causal factors of mass mortality of hatchery reared Clarias gariepinus fry during exogenous feeding

The study investigated the causal factors associated with mass mortality of hatchery-reared Clarias gariepinus Burchell 1822 fry during exogenous feeding. A feeding trial and fry re-infection trial were conducted using four different starter diets. The food samples were fed to 480 post-yolk-absorbed fries for 21 days in two replicates. Samples of dead fry were cultured for bacteria using standard methods. The total aerobic and coliform were significantly higher in all food samples, meanwhile, alkaline pH (9.25±0.34) and low dissolved oxygen (4.5±1.08) were not significantly different (P\u003e0.05) in all water tanks. The bacterial pathogens isolated from dead fries were Aeromonas hydrophila Stainer, 1943 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa Migula, 1990, whereas significantly higher mortality in experimentally infected fry was observed (α \u003c 0.05). Mass mortality of C.gariepinus fry observed in this study was associated with bacterial pathogens, bacterial contamination of food, alkaline pH, and low dissolved oxygen.