Journal of Experimental Agriculture International

A 10-week feeding trial was conducted in 15 plastic tanks (60 × 45× 30 cm) to assess the performance of Clarias gariepinus juveniles fed diets containing sunflower seed meals processed by different techniques. Five diets were formulated at 40% crude protein content containing no sunflower meal (control) or 50% soybeans and 50% sunflower meal. The sunflower seed meals were processed using four methods: (a) Boiled Sunflower Seed Meal (BSSM); cooked, oven-dried and ground, (b) Roasted Sunflower Seed Meal (RSSM); roasted, cooled and ground, (c) Mechanically-Extracted Sunflower Seed Meal (MSSM); screw-pressed, oven-dried and ground and (d) Solvent-Extracted Sunflower Seed Meal (SSSM); de-oiled, air-dried, oven-dried and ground. Each treatment was done in triplicate contained 20 fish (mean weight 30.01±0.01 g and length 12.31±0.30 cm). Fish were fed twice daily at 5% of their body weight. Fish fed the BSSM diet performed better (p<0.05) than those fed others processed sunflower meal diets and the control diet. Clarias gariepinus fed BSSM had significantly higher mean weight gain, specific growth rate, feed conversion ratio, gross feed conversion efficiency and nitrogen metabolism of 52.16±2.83 g, 0.62±0.09 g, 0.47±0.02, 212.77±0.02 and 2155.50±0.04 respectively of all the treatments. The processed sunflower seed meals recorded significantly higher (p<0.05) values of mineral composition (sodium, calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron and phosphorus) compared to the control. The result from this study indicated that BSSM diet can partially replace soybean meal in the diets for C. gariepinus without compromising growth or nutrient utilization.