First breeding trials of African catfish Schilbe intermedius (Rüppel, 1832): Effects of stocking density on growth and survival of larvae reared in circular tanks

Abstract

Captive breeding of new species such as Schilbe intermedius appears today one of the solutions to reduce the overfishing. Successful aquaculture requires among other, appropriate stocking density of fish in breeding. The current study analysed the effect of stocking density on growth and survival of the larvae of the butter catfish S. intermedius in circular tanks. During 24 days, six stocking densities (5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 larvae.l-1) represented respectively by D1, D2, D3, D4, D5 and D6 were tested on larvae (0.152 ± 0.001g body weight) in triplicate each. The larvae were fed daily at 10% of body weight every hour from 08:00 am to 08:00 pm with the Coppens (56% protein). The results of the final body weight (FBW), final specific growth rate (SGR), feed efficiency (FE), Survival rate (SR), daily weight gain (MDWG) and performance index showed lower values at higher stocking densities. Survival rate ranged from 29.66±0.25 to 66.33±1.2%, while specific growth rate ranged between 1.97±0.09 to 5.81±0.02% .day-1. The best growth performances were recorded in D1 (5 larvae.l-1) and D2 (10 larvae.l-1). Hence, the optimum stocking density for rearing of S. intermedius larvae in tanks was 5 larvae.l-1 (D1) of water.