ABSTRACT

An Indoor experimental trial on stocking density compared with carrying capacity (water volume) of Clarias qariepinus fingerlings reared in plastic basins was conducted to determine the growth performance and survival of the Clarias qariepinus for a period of twelve weeks. Coppens feed of crude protein level of 45% were utilized during the culture period. Diets were fed at 6% body weight daily to fish. Two experiments were carried out simultaneously in which in one, fish were stocked at different stocking density but the same water volume while in the other, same number of fish fingerlings were stocked in different water volumes. At the start of the experiment, the fishes used were weighed 2.532 ± 0.3gm and at the end, the weight recorded ranged between 64.64 ± 49.76, this is for the first series of experiment designated as "U" which has constant water volume of 30litres but stocking density of 1, 5, 10, 15 and 20. For the second series of experiment designated as "W", the weight recorded at the start of the experiment ranged between 2.404 ± 0.6gm and at the end, weight is recorded as 105.84 ± 53.11 The variance component analysis (ANOVA) showed that the mean weight of the fish were significantly different at P > 0.05 i.e ANOVA showed that there is no significant difference among the treatments used at 5% level of significance for both water volume and stocking density, here P- value > 0.05 but they are significant at 10% level of significance. The highest mean weight gain of 130.402g was recorded for W5 which has stocking density of 5 and water volume of 50L followed by W4 (87.666g) which has stocking density of 5 and water volume of 40L. The lowest mean weight gain is 19.006g recorded for W3 with water volume of 10L and stocking density of 5. Thus growth is inversely related to stocking density. Survival rate are high in "W" treatments than those in "U" treatments ranging37.3% to 80% because the "W" treatments contained low stocking density of 5 which is constant while the "U" treatment contained varied stocking density of 1, 5, 10, 15 and 20. The stocking density of 10, 15, and 20 is high for fishes reared in 50Litres basins than stocking density of 1 and 5, therefore survival rate is low in stocking density of 20 and high in stocking density of 5. U2 and W3 have the same effect of water volume and stocking density because U2 have constant water volume of 30L but varied stocking density of 5 while W5 have varied water volume of SOL and constant stocking density of 5. There was no record of mortality, cannibalism and aggression in them (both U2 and W3) observed during the experiment.