ISSN 2360-7971
Abstract: The Study was carried out in the demonstration farm of the Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries Management to evaluate the effect of tigernut (Cyperus esulentus) supplementary diet on fecundity, fertilisation, hatchability and survival rate of Clarias gariepinus hatchlings. Twenty (20) female broodstock with an average weight of 859g to 1kg were sourced and randomly distributed into ten (10) concrete tanks. Experimental diet of 40% crude protein containing 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% of wet and dry tigernut, respectively were included in the feed, formulated and fed to the female broodstock at 3% of body weight twice daily for 30 days. Data on fecundity, percentage fertilisation, hatchability and survival rate were collected and analysed using two-way ANOVA with Genstat. The dried tigernut treatment diet significantly increased the average weight of eggs with egg sacs compared to the wet diet. The fecundity of the fish result shows that there is a significant difference (P<0.05) between the wet and dry tigernut supplementary diets with TSD 15 showing the highest value for the wet and dry followed by TSD 05 and TSD 10. The fish showed significant differences (P<0.05) from other treatments and the control group. The result of the fertilisation shows no significant difference (P>0.05) between wet and dry control, TSD 5, TSD 10 respectively, but is significantly different from TSD 15 and TSD 20. The hatchability result shows the control with no significant difference (P>0.05) between the wet and dry treatments of hatchability, TSD 20, TSD 15, TSD 10 also shows no significant difference (P>0.05) between the wet and dry treatments except for TSD 5 which shows a significant difference (P<0.05). TSD 10 of the dry treatment shows the highest value while TSD 15 has the lowest value. The survival rate result shows that there is a significant difference (P<0.05) between wet and dry tigernut diet in TSD 00, TSD 05, TSD 10 and TSD 15. TSD 15 have the highest significant value in survival rate more than any other treatments in wet experimental diet This study has shown that inclusion of tigernut in the feed of fish enhance fecundity, fertilisation, hatchability and survival of C. gariepinus fry. This study established the efficacy of tigernut seed meal as fertility enhancer and hatchling survival in C. gariepinus broodstock and should be encouraged as it will minimize the dependence on synthetic drugs as fertility enhancing agents.
Keywords: Tigernut, Fecundity, Fertilisation, Hatchability and Clarias gariepinus