PERFORMANCE AND HAEMATOLOGICAL INDICES OF Clarias gariepinus FED GRADED LEVEL OF CRUDE ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF Gmelina arborea LEAF MEAL DIET.

A twelve week trial was conducted to investigate the performance and haematological indices of juvenile Clarias gariepinus fed graded level of crude ethanolic extract of Gmelina arborea leaf. The proximate analysis of the experimental diets were determined using A.O.A.C (2000) method and the data for each parameter were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) while the means of various results were compared at 5% level of significance. The ethanolic extract of the leaf was added to the experimental diet at 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% ratio respectively and were labelled T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5. The result showsthat fishes fed 15% ethanolic extract of Gmelina arborea Leaf meal (GALM) had the highest Red Blood Cell (RBC) count, Packed Cell Volume (PCV),Haemoglobin Concentration(Hb),White Blood Cell (WBC) count, globulin concentration Albumin concentration, Total protein and Total lipid concentration. This result indicated that inclusion of 15% ethanolic extract of Gmelina arborea leaf in the diets of fish can improve the growth performance and haematological indices of Clarias gariepinus without any adverse effect on their physiological status.