ABSTRACT

The study was carried out to evaluate the effect of chicken droppings and cow dung on the growths, feed utilization and survival of fingerlings of H. long/fills for 8 weeks. The experiment was conducted at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umiidike fish farm using three tanks of (0.80in X 0.86in X 0.55m) for three treatments. Each tank was stocked with 13 fingerlings v'eighing 90 grams each mean weight and fed with the supplementary feed procured from African Regional Aquacu1ture Centre (ARAC) Port Harcourt. Tank I was fertilized with cow dung and fed with supplementary feed, while tank 11 was fertilized with poultry dropping also fed with suppleii 'ntary feed while tank III had no manure but only fed with supplementary fc d. The tanks I and II were fertilized at the rate of 0.15kg per m2each over a period of 8 weeks and the fish were fed two times a day at 5% body weight. The weights of the fish were taken forth nightly (two weeks) to evaluate the growth rate, feed utilization aiid survival. From the results obtained, tank II (poultry dropping) showed the highest mean growth rate (0.08±0.02), protein efficiency ratio (0.52), specific growth rate (1.83%) and survival rate of (98±0.0%), followed by tank 1 (0.06±0.04), protein efficiency ratio (0.45), specific growth rate (1.68%) and mean survival rate (82±2.0%) lastly control (0.05±0.01) Protein efficiency ratio (0.38), specific growth rate (1.57%), and mean survival rate (51±4.0%). It was observed that the organic manure did not degrade the physio-chemical parameters (temperature, p1-i, and dissolved oxygen) of water.