In Nigeria, the culture of fish is gaining importance, but local fish farmers face a set back because of the stoppage on importation of fish feed. Locally available raw materials such as yam, plantain, banana, cowpeas, macuna, maize, cassava, millet, sorghum, groundnut, sunnhemp seed and brewery wastes are considered as potential materials for fish feed. These have been examined on their minimum protein contributions since this is the most expensive part of the fish feed. Alternative sources to animal proteins are also examined. Plant protein from groundnut, melon, mucuna and others compare favourably with bloodmeal mixture and thus can be used to replace the more expensive animal proteins. Pellet feed can be produced on a small scale or commercial basis from the locally available raw materials and the fish farmer is advised to seek assistance from qualified fisheries personne

Oyetayo, A.S.

English

Aquatic Commons

THE USE OF LOCALLY AVAILABLE ATERIAL FEE: PL:J31103TION
BY
Department of Zoology
University of Port-Harcourt
Port-Harcourt, Nigeria
;ACT
In Nigeria, the culture of fish is gaining importance, but local fish farmers face a set beck
because of the stoppage on importation of fish feed.
Locally available ravv materials such as yam, plantain, banana, cowpeas, macona, maize,
cassava, millet, sorghum, groundnut, sunnhemp seed and brewery wastes are considered as poten-
tial materials for fish feed. These have been examined on their minimum protein contributions
since this is the most expensive part of the fish feed.
Alternative sources to animal proteins are also examined. Plant protein from groundnut,
melon, mucuna and others compare favourably with bloodmeal mixture and thus can be used
to replace the more expensive animal proteins.
Fish feed can be produced on a small scale or commercial basis from the locally available
raw materials and the fish farmer is advised to seek assistance from qualified fisheries personnel.
INTRODUCTION
In Nigeria, the artisanal fishing is decreasing in importance and the trend is towards intensive
fish culture. This has its advantages in that useful man hours are not spent searching for fish in
the wild. But the problem is that an intensive fish culture demands extra feeding in order for the
fish to attain table size within a short time. Ta a large extent, fish seeds are still imported. With
the constraints on importation currently being experienced all over the Federation, the fish farmer
is facing a major setback in his business. This paper emanated from the demand of local fish far-
mers (some intending fish farmers) who are now facing problems with restriction on importation
of fish feed. This paper therefore, intenda to highlight those raw materials locally available that
can be used in making pellets as fish feed.
Fish Basic Requirement
Like other animals, fish need protein, carhohydrate, lipids, minerals and vitamins for growth
and. maintenance of physiological activities. These they get from the organisms they feed on in
the wild. With intensive culture where there is competition for food, extra food,. in form of
pellets or mash has to be added to the system for fish to attain table size vvithin a short time.
Some of the locally available raw materials in Nigeria include maize, cowpeas, groundnut,
melon, potato, cassava:yam, banana, plantain, pawpaw, soyabean, millet, guinea corn, rice, palm
oil, brewery wastes and fish. These have been analysed for their chemical composition (Table 1)
An examination of this iist shows that there are more carbonhydrate than protein foodstuffs and
therefore, the energy requirement of fish vvould be adequately met. However, the most expensive
part of feed is the protein and this is'the MOM important because it is used for body building.
Experisnce has shown that one SOUrce of protein is not adequate, a combination of various sources
such as animal and plant sources, is best (Bryant et al, 1980). The reason is that the essential
amino acid composition of each protein source varies from source to source (Table 2). Thus, the
addition of three to four different sources of protein should complement each other and hence
improve the essential amino acid composition of the feed, making it adequate for the fish.
Locally Available Raw Materiak Brewely Wastes
There are a lot of breweries in Nigeria, perhaps on the average of one brewery per State.
These daily turn out several tonnes of brewery vvastes such as spent beer plus solids, spent beer,
brewery grain waste that hitherto have not been put into any use. They can be incorporated
intu fish feed. Ezenwa (1979) has reported beer waste to contain 46.4, 22.8, 7.8 and 18.8%
carbohydrate, protein, fat, and fibre respectively.
In Peurto Rica, Kohler and PaganFont (1978) evaluated various vvaste products such as
rum distiller's yeast; pharmaceutical wastes, rum distiller's solubles; spent beer plus solids, inorga-
nic fertilizer of NPK (8-8-2); commercial fish feed containing 36-5and 7% crude protein,
fat and fibre raepectively; and e locally manufactured chicken feed containing 18, 2.5 and 4.0%
crude protein, fat and fibre respectively. Water quality criteria aich as pH, dissolved oxygen and
temperature were used as guideline for applying the rum and pharmcceutical wastes to the pools.
They found that survival at harvest ranged from 60.0% for commercial chicken feed to 96.7%
for commercial fish feed. The highest mean standing crop was got from the fish fed, the commer-
cial fish feed and this was closely followed by the spent beer treatifient. Hovvever, the weight of
offspring from the spent beer treatment was higher than that from the fish feed treatment. The
fish from the unmanaged systern yielded the lowest mean standing crop vvhile the Other treatments
gave moderate yields but the yield from the inorganic fertilizer was greater. Thera vvas moje than
thre- fold increase of fish weight over that of the unmanaged system in the Turn distriller's yeast
treatment, though pour water quality conditions were observed in the water of the pools. They
concluded that "sume potentials-1 'deists foi the utilization uf the rum and pharmaceutical wastes
for rearing Tficepia carea in Puerto Rico" and the "dried forms of the by-products should be
evaluated for their possible incorporation as part of a local teed". They also suggested that the
application of the comme,rcial chicken feed be limited to supplemental feed in conjuction with
some intensive fertilization in view of the fact that the bits of hard corn in the chicken feed were
not assimilated by the fish.
Rice, Maize, Sorghum
.Uchida and King (1960) in Hawaii tested the acceptability of various feeds using Javatilapia
(Sarotherodon mossambicus). Finely ground rice bran and chicken mash were suitable for the
adults as they could not strain small particles from the, water, and thus much of the feed was
wasted and tended to foul the tanks. The pelletized pond fish and trout feeds were consumed
by the adult fish with little wastage, while the rabbit feed, which has a high percentage of crude
fibre, passed thmugh the fish undigested and left much residue in the tank. Alfalfa pellets were
less acceptable elue to-their large size and their high fibre content.
In Brazil, Castagnolli (1975) fount, that carp fingerlings fed on either opague-2-maize or
hybrid maize gave the same conversion rate and performance. In another test, he showed that
sorghum can be substituted for maize at 70% level in the diet for mirror carp (Cyprinus carpio)
and tilapia (7lltzpia rendalli). Under the same environmental conditions, mirror carp grew twice
as fast and gained three times as much weight as-the tilapia. Similar feeding studies carried out
on fishes at Ellah Lakes at Obrikom in Rivers State shovved species of Clarias, Gymnarchus and
Heterotis to accept pelleted diets made from maize and other local materials In this case, the
maize and other ingredients were milled together. These studies are still in progress.
Kitchen Garbage
There are many kitchen wastes such as bean testa, plantain, cocoyam, patato, banana, pinea-
pple, orange, pawpaw, yam and cassava peels vvnich arethrown.away daily.Most of these could be
included in fish feeds Even though they have low protein contents (From 7.87-11.21%), they can
still supply some amount of it in addition to their normal contribution of minerals and vitamins
to the feed. It is interesting to note that the protein contents of these peels are higher than those
of the actual edible portions of the same ioostuff (Table I). These have their own attraction in
that they are readily available anci very much within the reach of small scale fish farmers who can
easily throvv them into the ponds for fish to nibble on.
Given the mineral and vitamin composition of these foodstuffs, it would be necessary to
find out what percentage of these are in the peals.
Leaf Concentrates
Naturally, some local species of fish such as Distichodus engrycephalus, D.' brevipinis and
D. rostratus are herbivorous in their feeding habits. Thus, other raw materials worth including
in fish f4-d are the leaves such as water leaf, green (tete), pawpaw, svveet potato, garden egg,
yam, banana, plantain, okra, groundnut, maize, cassava and cocoyarn. These leaves are daily
consumed by ruminants without any pathological effect on them. Hence the leaves can be used
as both fibre and filler in fish feed.
143
For instance, the sweet potato leaves have successfully bz:n included in fish diet by the
author to act as both filler, tibio and most importantly as colourant. Some of their mineral
contents would be made available to the fish through processing.
Apart from the herbivores, the omnivorous species such as C7arias, Heterobranchus and
Cyprinus carpio would feed on this type of pellet too.
Alternative Protein Sources
Since protein is the limiting item in feeds in terms of its cost as well as its body building
properties, consideration of alternative sources is hereby attempted. Traditionally, fish and
bloodmeals are the usual sources of protein in fish feed. These are becoming very expensive
(about 1141,000/metric tonne of fishmeal ) and scarce, thus making fish f--d exorbitant or out of
reach of the average fish farmer.
A Critical examination of the protein contents (Table 1) of some of our plant feeding stuffs
such as water melon, sunnhemp seed, greengram seed, groundnuts seed and cake, cowpea, mucuna
and cotton seeds, show that they compare favourably vvith bloodmeal mixture. Although these
may not have the same amount of amino acid contents as either fishmeal or bloodmeal, they can
still be used to supplement the blood or fish meals in order to reduce the quality and cost of the
latter without necessarily reducing the biological quanlity of the feed. lgbinosun et al (in NIOMR
Technical Paper No.7) found that soyabean meal can be used to replace fishmeal partially or com.
pletely, however, the growth of the Nigerian catfish on this meal vvas poorer than in the fishmeal.
Research is needed on the optimum protein requirement of the warmwater fishes,
CONCLUSION
From the foregoing, it is realized that enough raw materials are available locally to produce
fish feed in commerical quantity. Perhaps the,maice problem is the technical know-how. This can
be referred to qualified fishery personnels who are prepared to render such services vvith minimum
charges.
REFERENCES
BRYANT, P.; JAUNCEY, K. and ATACK, T. (1980). Backyard fish farming. 170pp Prism Press Dorset,
CASTAGNOLLI (1975). Fish Feeds. FAO Aquacuiture Bulletin Rep. 7(3.4): 7-8.
E ZENINA, B. (1979). Supplementary diets in fish culture and feed formulation technology in Nigeria. MOM
Occasional Paper No.30.
I0E31NOSUN, J. E., TALABI, S. O., ROBERTS, O. 0. and OKOLIE,`E. (n.d) Studies on the nutrition of break-
fish water catfish, Chrysichthys nkrodigitatus II. Replacement of Fislimeal by soyabean meal in t'ne diets of
Nigerian brackish water catfish. NIOMR Tech. Pop; No. 7 13pp.
KOHLER, C. C. and PAGANFONT, F. A. (1978). E vbluations of rum distillation wastes, pharmaceutical
vvastes and chicken feed for rearing 711apia aurea in Puerto Rico. Aquaculture 14: 339-347,
OYENUGA, Y. A. (1969). Nigeria's foods end feeding stuffs: Their chemistry and nutritive value, !bade',
University Press.
UCHIDA, R. N. and ICING, J. E. (1960). Tank culture of Maple. fitheries Bulletin of fish and Wildlife Service.
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The use of locally available materials in fish feed production

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The use of locally available materials in fish feed production

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