Effect of different artificial feeds on the growth and survival of tilapia (gift strain, Oreochromis niloticus) fry

An experiment was carried out with 12 days old tilapia (GIFT strain, Oreochromis niloticus) fry for a period of 42 days to determine the effect of different feeds on growth and survival of tilapia fry in synthetic hapa in pond. Five different diets with protein level of 17.94% in Treatment 1 (T 1 -control), 18.17% in Treatment 2 (T 2 ), 16.20% in Treatment 3 (T 3 )and16.19% in Treatment 4 (T 4 ) and 19.77% in T 5 were supplied. The highest and the lowest total length and weight  2.955 cm, 0.1735 g and 2.48 cm, 0.144 g were recorded for the fry fed with treatments T 5 and T 4 respectively. The maximum and minimum length and weight gains 2.05 cm, 0.16 g and 1.58 cm, 0.13 g were observed in fry fed with treatments T 5 and T 4 respectively. Growths of tilapia fry in terms of both length and weight under treatment T 5 were significantly (p0.01) higher than those of the other treatments. Treatment T 4 showed significant (p0.01) lowest growth performance among the five treatments. The highest survival (91.3%) rate and better growth were observed in fry fed with treatment T 5. The study suggests that T 5 feed where carbohydrate was partially replaced by protein percentage could be considered as a recommended feed for the growth and production of tilapia fry.