Zooplankton as live food for fry and fingerlings of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and catfish (Clarias gariepinus) in concrete ponds.

Many fish and crustacean larvae and fingerlings require live food at the onset of exogenous feeding. This experiment has been conducted to evaluate of zooplankton as live food for fry and fingerlings of Nile Tilapia Oreochromis niloticus and Catfish Cla ias ga iepinus. 24 concrete ponds were used at Central Laboratory for Aquaculture Research (CLAR) AbbassaSharkia GovernorateEgypt. The experimental period was about 140 days. The pH, nitrogen compound, water transparency, dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll a were significantly increased in ponds of artificial feed than those of zooplankton live food. The temperature did not differ significantly between different food types in all ponds. The using of zooplankton as live food for fish improved the quality of fish. The results indicated that the using of zooplankton as live food for fry fish species was significantly increase in growth performance than fingerlings. Also, the growth performance of catfish was significantly increased than Nile tilapia. Also, the fed by zooplankton was enough for fry and fingerlings to achieve suitable growth more than artificial feed. The detritus increased significantly in case of fish species fed with artificial feed treatments, while, zooplankton increased significantly in zooplankton live food treatments. r r