GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF NILE TILAPIA (OREOCHROMIS NILOTICUS) FINGERLINGS RAISED IN AN EARTHEN POND
Mohamed H. Bahnasawy, Taman E. Abdel-Baky, Gamal A. Abd-Allah
Zoology Department, Damietta Faculty Of Science, Damietta, Egypt
ABSTRACT. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the growth performance of Nile tilapia fed with supplemental feed (25% crude protein) at 50% satiation. Juvenile Nile tilapia (average weight 6.4 g) were stocked in an earthen pond at 2.4 fish m-2. The pond was fertilized twice weekly with a mixture of superphosphate and urea fertilizer (68 kg ha-1). The annual fish yield was 6880 kg ha-1. The mean weight of harvested fish ranged from 110 to 250 g. The food conversion ratio (FCR) was 0.82, the average daily weight gain (ADG) was 0.9 g d-1 and the specific growth rate was 1.55 % d-1. This study demonstrated that 50% satiation feeding is an effective feeding rate for improving the production of Nile tilapia cultured in a fertilized, freshwater earthen pond.
Key words: NILE TILAPIA (ORECHROMIS NILOTICUS), EARTHEN POND, GROWTH PERFORMANCE
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:
Dr Mohamed H. Bahnasawy, Zoology Department, Damietta Faculty of Science, Damietta, Egypt;
E-mail:bahnas 2001@mum.mans.eun.eg