Effects of different salinity for survival and growth on African catfish clarias gariepinus juvenile

The study was conducted to determine the possibility for culturing African catfish Clarias gariepinus juvenile in low saline water and to determine the optimum level of salinity for survival and growth. The study was carried out with six treatments from 0 (as a control), 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5ppt of water media with three replicate in each level. African catfish juvenile with an initial length of 0.26 and 0.29 gram were stocked at 20 tails per 7 liter no recirculating aquarium tank in each treatment. Prior to the experiment juvenile were acclimated by a gradually increased the salinity per hour for each treatment. Juvenile were fed by using marine sinking pellet until satiation twice a day at 8.30 am to 3.30 pm. Furthermore, survival and growth performance were evaluated. After three weeks of experiment, there are no significant different in survival result. Survival was almost similar at all levels of salinity. The best growth (final weight (g), weight gain (%) and SGR(g/%» was perform in 1ppt are 2.679±0.02, 371.254, 5.565 respectively and the poorest was at 5ppt where the growth performance are 1.824±0.15, 259.799, 4.578, respectively. Overall, the optimum level of salinity for culturing juvenile was suggested at 1ppt due to the best growth performance.