STM Article Repository

An experiment was carried out to evaluate the nutritional quality of the meal made from the larvae of the house fly, Musca domestica (magmeal), as supplement in feeding of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings, raised in aquarium tanks in the laboratory, for 10weeks. Six iso-nitrogenous (35% crude protein) and iso-caloric (av. 3.92 kcal/g) diets tagged Mg0, Mg10, Mg20, Mg30, Mg40 and Mg50, were formulated, containing 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% magmeal protein source. The control diet (Mg0) contains no magmeal. These were fed to triplicate groups (n=20) of C. gariepinus fish fingerlings (av. wt. 2.18 g ±0.2 g) for a period of 10 weeks. The FWG, FCR, PER, SGR and percentage survival of the fish fed diets Mg0, Mg10, Mg20, Mg30, Mg40 and Mg50 were not significantly different (p<0.05) from one another. The results indicate that magmeal can be used to replace up to 50% of the fish meal component of C. gariepinus diet, without adverse effects on survival, nutrient utilization and growth. Based on this development, it is concluded that magmeal can be an adequate substitution for fishmeal, to drastically reduce the cost of feed, for catfish production.