Effect of <i>Zingiber officinale</i>and <i>Allium sativum</i>Powders as Natural Feed Additives Promoting Growth, Feed Utilization and Whole-Body Composition in <i>Clarias gariepinus</i>Fry

Nutrition is the main factor determining the potential of farmed fish to exhibit their growth capacity as a function of the protein content and certain additives contained in their diet. Thus, the present study was conducted to assess dietary supplementation effects of ginger and garlic as feed additives on growth, feed utilization and whole-body composition in Clarias gariepinus fry. Following a 24 h fasting, 525 fry weighing 1.2 ± 0.01 g were randomly divided in triplicate into five treatments of 105 fish each and fed for 56 days. In treatment T0, fry was fed with control basal diet, in treatments T1 and T2, fry was fed with basal diet containing 1% and 2% ginger, while in treatments T3 and T4, fry was fed on basal diet supplemented with 1% and 2% garlic. Fish were fed at the rate of 10% of their body weight and every 14 days, intermediate fish sampling was done during which fry per treatment was counted, measurements taken on a representative sample and the feeding rate adjusted. Main water parameters were recorded daily before feeding. After the feeding trial, fish fed 1% (T3) garlic had the best growth performance in term of final weight (33.01 ± 2.99 g), weight gain (WG) (31.81 ± 0.99 g), specific growth rate (SGR) (5.86 ± 0.16%/d) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) (1.25 ± 0.11) which was significantly different from other treatments, particularly T0 which had the lowest growth performances (final weight (17.02 ± 0.27 g), WG (15.81 ± 0.28 g), SGR (4.73 ± 0.03%/d) and FCR (2.03 ± 0.01)). Similar trend to growth parameters was found with whole-body composition (moisture, crude protein, crude lipid, ash, and energy) and nutrient retention. In conclusion, C. gariepinus fry fed 1% dietary inclusion level of garlic has had better growth, feed utilization and body composition, which has been more attributed to its physiological and pharmacological properties than its nutritional effects.