Effects of Salinity on Growth Performance and Blood Parameters of Butter Catfish, Ompok bimaculatus

Abstract

Thestudywasconductedinlaboratoryconditionstoevaluatetheeffectsofsalinityongrowth,survival,andbloodchemistryofbuttercatfish,Ompokbimaculatusfingerlings.Thefry,initiallysized as 7.01 cm length and 1.69 g weight, were assigned in four different salinity treatments i.e., 0 ppt (TC), 2 ppt (T1), 4 ppt (T2) and 8 ppt (T3) with three replications, with 21 fry in each replication as well. Fish were fed commercial catfish diets with 43% protein and 8% lipid at 5% body weight three times a day for 90 days. The control (TC) treatment showed the significantly highest growth perfor-mance among treatments, (p lt;0.05). The T3 treatment group showed a lethal parameter and all fish died within 72 hours of exposure to it. The survival rate was recorded as 90.47% for Tc, 71.43% for T1 and 47.61% for T2 treatment. The mean weight and length gain 6.17 g and 4.93 cm observed in T1 followed by 4.59 g and 3.06 cm in T2 treatment. The specific growth rate (SGR) (%) mean weight gain, length gain, average daily weight gain, average daily length gain and percentage length gain were (%) found to be significantly higher in Tc in comparison to those in the salinity treated groups (p lt;0.05).SignificantlyhigherhemoglobinandWBCwereobservedinTcamongtreatmentsandhad the lowest value recorded in T1 and T2. There were no significant changes between RBC counts among treatments.

Keywords

• salinity
• growth performance
• growth performance
• blood parameters
• ompok bimaculatus