Growth potential and body composition of the African catfish Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus (Lacépède, 1803) juveniles fed different locally available feed ingredients

Bagrid catfish Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus has a great aquaculturepotential, excellent taste and high market value in the most countries ofWest Africa. However, it is lowly raised in these countries. Among theconstraints to its low raising in Cote d'Ivoire, the unavailability of highqualityfeeds adapted to the different growth stages was often reported. Theaim of this study was to formulate quality feeds with locally availableagro-industrial byproducts for juvenile’s growth stage of Chrysichthysnigrodigitatus to improve the availability of adapted high quality feeds ofthis fish and its growth. Thus, locally agro-industrial by-products wereselected based on their availability, cost and nutritional composition in thethree fish farmed agro-ecological areas to formulate and produce threedifferent isoproteic feeds (35 % crude protein) for juveniles Chrysichthysnigrodigitatus. Fish of mean initial weight 10.57 ± 3.88 g were fed with thethree feeds produced in earthen ponds in triplicates groups per treatment.Feed consumption and fish growth (weight and length) were measuredmonthly. At the end of 120 days rearing, proximate and mineralcompositions of the fish were determined. Final body weight and dailyweight gain of fish fed varied respectively between 106.27±6.85 (G-35%)and 149.83±19.01g (SG2-35%), and 0.80±0.06 (G-35%) and 1.16±0.16 g/d(SG2-35%). Growth of Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus juveniles fed withisoproteiques feeds varied with quality of locally raw material used forfeeds production. Body moisture, ash, and gross energy were notinfluenced by feed used, but the least body protein content (18.41±0.67 %)and poorest body lipid content (0.99±0.14%) were observed in fish fed G-35 % and SG2-35% respectively. Feed SG2-35% at 0.53 USD/kg recordedthe most growth and the best feed utilization ratio.