DIETARY EFFICACY OF NUTMEG (Myristica frangrans) SEED ON VISCEROINTESTINO SOMATIC INDICES AND MORPHOMETRIC CHARACTERISTIC OF JUVENILE Clarias gariepinus

Abstract

The performance of juvenile Clarias gariepinus fed different graded level of nutmeg seed meal (NSM) was investigated. Two hundred C. gariepinus juveniles (mean weight 11.80±0.71g) were randomly assigned to five treatment diets in a completely randomized design for 56 days. The experimental fish were replicated twice with 20 fish per replicate, fed twice daily at 3% body weight. The diets were made of control (without nutmeg), D2 (0.5% NSM), D3 (1.0% NSM), D4 (2.0 % NSM), and D5 (30mg/kg Chloramphenicol) as positive control. The viscero-intestino somatic indices and morphometric characteristic were determined. The result of the study shows an increase in the values of total length, standard length, dorsal width, height and a head length of C. gariepinus
juveniles. There was a significant difference (P<0.05) among the dietary groups. Also, it was observed that the weight increases as the week of feeding trial increases and the test diet treated groups perform better than the control group. The result of the study revealed that the values of viscero-intestino somatic indices obtained at the end of the experiment showed that there was an increase in the value obtained among the test diet treated groups when compared to the control diet and there were significantly different (P<0.05) among the dietary groups. The result suggests that 1.0% inclusion of nutmeg seed meal could be used in fish farming feed, successfully without the internal organ and morphometric characteristic being impacted negatively.