Title: Evaluation of commercial and locally made feed in the culture of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) in Nigeria.

This study was conducted to determine the growth, feed conversion efficiency and economic effectiveness of C. gariepinus juveniles fed five diets, Skretting commercial feed (S), Bluecrown commercial feed (B), Skretting cum local feed (SL), Bluecrown cum local feed (BL). and local feed (L). The growth and survival were observed for 12 weeks in a complete randomised design in triplicate. Fish fed on S diet showed significantly better (p<0.05) growth rate and final weight than fish fed the L diet. No significant difference (p>0.05) was detected among treatment groups fed B, SL, BL and L diets. The growth reflected the crude protein content in the Skretting feed (37.18%) which was significantly higher (p<0.05) than the Bluecrown feed (35%) and local feed (32.55%). The feed conversion ratio was lowest in the group fed the S diet (1.35) significantly lower (p<0.05) than the other treatments, followed by treatment B (1.97) and treatment SL (1.97) which were the same but significantly different (p<0.05) to treatment BL (2.65) and treatment L (2.81). However, C. gariepinus fed diet L indicated a better profit index and lower incidence cost over other treatments. The study showed that diets S, B, SL and BL may increase diet cost over diet L by 47%, 43%, 11.9% and 11.6%, respectively. Equally, the combined diets indicate a viable result and had a better cost effectiveness on fish growth than the commercial diets solely. The fish in all treatments had no significant (p>0.05) condition factors. This study indicates a potential for growth performance, nutrient utilisation, condition factor and profitability in the local diet if well formulated. The study suggests that the local diet has a potential to be used for catfish culture at reduced cost.