The aim was to contribute to the valorization of the alternative sources of animal protein. More specifically, it was question to evaluate the effect of substitution of the fish meal by the maggot meal on the survival, growth performances and food production cost of Clarias jaensis. To this end, 120 fingerlings were divided in four groups (T0, T1, T2 and T3) repeated 3 times and receiving 0, 50, 75 and 100% of maggot meal. The fish were fed to 5% of ichtyo biomass for 3 months. The treatments did not have any significant effect on survival, FC, SL, LW, WG, ADG and SGR (P>0.05). However, the values of the LW (145.12±20.72), WG (104.12±20.72g), ADG (1.16±0.23g) and SGR (1.39±0.14) were higher with T2. The CI (1.46±0.04) of this same treatment were weaker and the condition factor K (1.19±0.22) was higher as compared to other treatment (P<0.05). However, the lowest value of the cost of feed consumption and feed production was recorded with the T2 ration (75% of maggots meal) and highest with the control ration T0 (0% of maggots meal) (P<0.05). This study revealed that incorporation of the maggot meal in feed increases the growth performances of Clarias jaensis fingerlings.

The aim of this study was to contribute to the improvement of knowledge on the growth of endogenous catfish of Cameroon Clarias jaensis to develop the standards of his breeding. For this purpose, 396 fingerlings (36.7 ± 10.1 g) were divided into four comparable group with three replications. Four experimental rations containing 3000, 3100, 3200 and 3300 Kcal/kg of metabolize energy were distributed in these group at 5% of ichtyobiomasse. Except the feed intake and survival rate, other growth characteristics were comparable (P>0.05) between rations. The higher feed intake and the lowest consumption index were recorded with the ration containing 3000 Kcal/kg. The weight (95.10 ± 8.14 g), total length (23.77 ± 1.15 cm), weight gain (58.70 ± 9.49g), average daily gain (1.01 ± 0.16 g), specific growth rate (1.66 ± 0.26%) and K factor (0.71 ± 0.05) were higher with the ration containing the lowest level of energy. This reveals that Clarias jaensis fingerlings requires less energy for growth compared to other catfish like Clarias gariepinus. In view of the above and given the cost of manufacturing the food, the ration containing 3000 kcal/kg would be agro economically sustainable although the search for the optimal level of energy remains.

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