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1 Introduction
The major recurrent cost in fish production is feed; this alone has progressively taken the larger share of the cost of production so much that total feed cost accounts for over 60% of total production cost (Balogun et al., 1992). Tiamiyu et al. (2007) had reported that feed may account for between 60 - 80% of production cost for fish hence, the need to focus on least cost feed through the use of unconventional feed stuff. Conventional feed ingredients used in fish production are becoming increasingly expensive due to competition from humans (FAO, 2002), therefore efforts have been channeled to investigating other alternative feed ingredient which are unconventional in nature and are not edible by man as possible replacement for conventional feed ingredients in the diet of fish.
Many Agricultural by-products that are considered as wastes in Nigeria have great potentials as animals feed ingredients if properly handled, processed and incorporated into rations. A good example of such wastes is kola pod husk (KPH). Nigeria is one of the. Largest producers of Kola and Kola pod husk, it constitute 75% of the kola fruit. It has been reported to have 13% crude protein and energy of 2546.9kcal/kg (NRC, 1984) hence has high potential for consideration as possible substitute to conventional feedstuffs. The paucity of information on the nutritive values of Kola pod husk in the nutrition of African catfish necessitated this research which seeks to evaluate the growth performance and nutrient utilization of African catfish fed varying levels of Kola pod husk as replacement for maize.
2 Materials and Methods
The study was conducted at the Fisheries research farm University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State using outdoor pond culture system with hapas (1m × 1m × 1m) and lasted for a period of 8 weeks. Clarias gariepinus juveniles used for this study were obtained from the department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, University of Agriculture, Makurdi, fish farm, they were acclimatized for three weeks before randomly distributing into the hapas. Ten juveniles of the same mean initial weight were stocked in each hapa. The nylon mosquito netting material was purchased from North Bank, Market, Makurdi, Benue State of Nigeria. A nylon twine was also purchased to anchor the hapas firmly in the pond.
Fishmeal,...