Effect of Different Artificial Diets on the Culture Potential of Labeo victorianus (Boulenger, 1909) Reared in Aquaria.

Culture potential of Labeo victorianus was investigated using three different diet treatments for 8 weeks in 0.24m3 capacity aquaria. Aquaria tanks was filled with 50 liters of water and stocked with Labeo victorianus fry of mean weight 0.54 ± 0.02 g and mean length 4.42 ± 0.1cm at a stocking density of 2L-1. Three different dietary treatments were performed in replicates: Treatment 1: Rastrenobola argentia, maize bran, sunflower seedcake. Treatment 2: Caradina niloticus, rice bran, sunflower seedcake. Treatment 3: Rastrenobola argentia, wheat bran, cotton seedcake. The fish were fed powdered diets at 3% body weight twice daily with the different diets, which contained 30% crude protein. Physico-chemical parameters of the aquaria water were recorded weekly while mortality records were done daily. There was significant difference in specific growth rate (SGR) between diet 1 and 2 (P < 0.05) and diet 1 and 3 (P <0.05), with diet 1 recording 0.53% compared to 0.42% and 0.45% for diet 2 and 3 respectively. There was no significant difference between diet 2 and 3, (P = 0.605).The mean weight gain of individual fish were 0.45 ± 0.02, 0.31 ± 0.03 and 0.41 ± 0.01 for diets 1, 2 and 3 respectively. There was positive correlation between length and weight (r2 = 0.8352). The survival rates and water quality parameters were similar in all the treatments (P <0.05). The low growth rate in Diet 2 could be attributed to high fiber content of rice bran, which makes it difficult to digest and thus less palatable. Poor growth rate in Diet 3 was attributed to gossypol, which is a toxic chemical contained in cotton seed meals. Labeo victorianus fry can adapt to culture conditions when fed appropriate supplementary diet.