Dietary Effects of Tiger Nut (Cyperus esculentus) on Egg and Milt Quality of African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) Broodstocks (Burchell, 1822)

The dietary effect Tiger nut (Cyperus esculentus) seed powder was examined on the egg and milt quality of African catfish broodstock.45 Female catfish broodstock of average body weight, 475 ± 25.00g and male catfish broodstock of average body weight, 487.09±13.57 g. Five diets with crude protein of 40% were formulated with different inclusion levels of Cyperus esculentus seed powder; 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 g per 100 g of experimental diet (D1, D2 ,D3, D4 and D5). The experiment was carried out for 70 days and fish fed twice daily at 3% body weight. Fish fed experimental diets showed significantly improved growth performance and reproductive indices over the control treatment. Fish fed D3 had the highest weight gain (173.6±10.98) in female catfish while D5 had highest weight gain (215.17±11.62) in male catfish. Fish fed with D4 had the highest percentage fertilization (93.00±3.05) and percentage hatchability (85.00±2.64) in female catfish while in male catfish the highest percentage fertilization (94.00±1.29) and hatchability (79.17±10.09) was from D5. Percentage survival and gonadosomatic index was higher in fish fed D5 in both female and male catfish. Histology of fish fed with Cyperus esculentus diets revealed oocytes formation within the ovaries. Ovary of fish fed D1 showed primary oocytes, with primary yolk accumulation in the ovary of fish fed D2 and there were improvement in the oocytes. Fish fed D3, D4 and D5 showed more matured oocytes and ripe yolk of late maturing stage. There was reduced seminiferous tubular lumen and scanty spermatozoa in D1 and D2 and there was high spermatozoa density in the seminiferous lumen seen in the testicular histology of fish fed diets D3, D4 and D5. This result revealed that dietary inclusion of Cyperus esculentus seed powder enhance growth and improves fertility in Clarias gariepinus which will improve the quantitiy of its seed production.