Response of African Catfish, <i>Clarias gariepinus</i>(Burchell 1822), Fingerlings Fed Diets Containing Differently Timed Wet-Heat-Treated Sesame (<i>Sesamum indicum</i>) Seedmeal

The response of catfish fed differently timed wet-heat-treated sesame seedmeal was evaluated in the diet of Clarias gariepinus using growth performance, nutrient utilisation and apparent digesti-bility coefficient as indices. Three batches of sesame seed, which were cooked for 10, 20 and 30 minutes, dried, milled, and mechanically defatted using locally made screw press. Each of these differently processed seedmeals was included in the diet of African catfish at varying replacement levels, 15, 30 and 45% with soybean meal. There was good growth performance and nutrient uti-lization by Clarias gariepinus fed with differently timed wet-heat-treated sesame seed that was not significantly different (p > 0.05) from fish fed control diet. More so, the apparent digestibility coef-ficient for organic matter, protein, energy, lipid, fibre, carbohydrate in Clarias gariepinus fed with differently timed wet-heat-treated sesame seedmeal based diets in this study were comparable with the results obtained for fish fed control diets.