Evaluation of soybean meal replacement with sesame seed meal using activated charcoal as an additive in the diet of African catfish juveniles, Clarias gariepinus

This study evaluated the effects of 0.25% activated charcoal added to sesame seed meal (SSM) in partial replacement of soybean meal (SBM) of juvenile Clarias gariepinus diet on growth and haematological parameters for 70 day experimental period. Six experimental diets were formulated as: control diet 1 (100% SSM without activated charcoal), control diet 2 (100% SSM plus 0.25% activated charcoal), diet 3 (50% SMB% SSM), diet 4 (50% SBM% SSM.25% AC), diet 5 (30% SBM% SSM) and diet 6 (30% SBM% SSM.25AC). The inclusion of activated charcoal recorded significant improvement in mean weight gain, mean feed intake, specific growth rate (SGR), protein intake (PI) and protein efficiency ratio (PER). The control diet 2 recorded the highest values for growth and nutrient utilization parameters while diet 5 recorded the least values for these parameters. The best values for mean weight gain (65.33±5.57 g), specific growth rate (2.56±0.12% / day) and feed conversion ratio (0.71±0.05) were recorded in fish fed control diet 2 while the worst values (41.30±3.82 g, 1.92±0.11% / day, and 1.07±0.07, respectively) for these parameters were observed with diet 5. However, haematological parameters did not differ significantly across the diets. Thus, from this study 0.25% activated charcoal could favorably be added to the feed of C. gariepinusfor optimum performance without any adverse effect on the health status of the fish.