Growth of cultured Tilapia (ömochrömlB nllötlcus) on diets formulated from earthworm and other locally available ingredients.

Abstract

A growth trial was carried out to study the effect of experimental diets containing earthworm meal and fish meal as protein sources on the body weight and length of Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fingerlings. The protein concentrate portions of the five diets contained 0% 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% earthworm meal and the remaining part was made from fishmeal. The basal portion of the diets was made from copra meal, cassava, millrun and sago. All diets were formulated to contain 35% crude protein but metabolisable energy estimates ranged from 12.7 to 13.8mJ/kg. Feeding period was seven weeks and live body weight and length were measured weekly. The results showed highly significant effects of diets on body weight and length of Tilapia. The highest and lowest body weight and body length were obtained for the diet made from concentrate of 100% fishmeal and 75% earthworm meal respectively. Body weight and length of Tilapia fed on diets containing 25% earthworm meal concentrate were similar to those of Tilapia on 100% fishmeal concentrate diet Generally growth performance of Tilapia decreased as the proportion of earthworm meal in the diets increased. The results suggest that, there is potential for using earthworms to replace up to 25% of fishmeal in the protein concentrate of farm made Tilapia diets.