International Journal of Aquaculture, 2025, Vol.15, No.3, 155-164 http://www.aquapublisher.com/index.php/ija 159 feed (Novatek) comprised of maize, maize bran, Wheat bran, Soybeans and Soycake, Fish meal, Vitamin and mineral premixes (NOVATEK, 2024). The diet was formulated in a way that essential nutrients meet the nutritional needs of the fish as required in culturing fish in tanks to have an improved growth rate with higher protein content. Figure 3 Samples of collected fillets as meat yield for carcass composition Diet preparation involved mixing the dry macro-ingredients: soybean meal, maize bran, sunflower meal, and cassava meal, before adding oil. Vegetable oil was included in the diets at 1% for all diets to provide n-6 fatty acids. Micro-ingredients, mineral and vitamin premixes were added each at 1.5% to the macro ingredients and finely mixed. Cassava meal was used as a binder to improve stability in water, increase pellet firmness and reduce the number of fines produced during processing (Confred and Rodney, 2015) (Table 1). Table 1 Ingredients and compositions of experimental diet in percentage inclusion rates Ingredients On farm feed Sunflower 38 Soybean meal 38 Maize bran 18.10 Cassava meal 2.00 Vitamin premix 1.50 Mineral premix 1.50 Vegetable oil 1.00 2.11 Data analysis The data was collected based on weight, survival, and length. Every one week, fish from each tank was weighed and measured to assess growth performance and feed was adjusted to the increase in size. Survival was monitored on a daily basis and every week by counting the total number of fish in each tank. Feed intake was observed six days a week throughout the experimental period. Data on body weight, total length, and water quality parameters collected during the feeding trials were analyzed using Minitab Statistical Software (Version 17). A one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was performed to determine whether there were statistically significant differences (P < 0.05) among the experimental groups. Microsoft Excel was used to generate all graphical representations of the results. 3Results 3.1 Growth performance Changes in the mean body weight of fish over the 9 week experimental period (Figure 4). Fish fed diets
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