Effect of Dietary Inclusion of Garlic as Additive on Growth Performance and Heamatological Parameters of Clarias gariepinus (Burchell 1822) Fingerlings

Background and Objective: Feed additives are a group of nutrient and non-nutrient compounds which help in improving the efficiency of feed utilization and thus reducing the high cost of feed. A 72 Day experiment was conducted outdoors of 0.9 cm³ square concrete tanks filled with fresh water to evaluate the effect of dietary inclusion of garlic as an additive on growth performance and hematological characteristics of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings. Materials and Methods: As 150 C. gariepinus fingerlings at the mean weight (3.13±0.07 g) and length of 6.08±0.03 cm were randomly selected, divided into five dietary treatments and stocked at the rate of 10 fingerlings per tank (120 L) and replicated twice. They were fed with 45% crude protein containing five garlic-based diets of 0.5, 0.75, 1.00, 1.5 and 0.00 g/kg ad libitum twice daily. Results: Significant differences (p<0.05) occurred in the growth and nutrient utilization parameters. Data collected on growth performance indices, feed intake, percentage mortality and blood parameters were subjected to One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) using Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The results revealed that fish increased significantly in weight (p<0.05) as the level of garlic inclusions increased in diets and utilized the feed more efficiently than the control. Significant differences (p<0.05) were observed in all the growth and blood parameters. Dietary garlic inclusion at 1.00 g/kg had the best performance in growth and as well blood build-up. Conclusion: Therefore, from the findings of this research garlic, is encouraged to be included in fish diet from 0.75-1.00 g/kg.