Banana stem addition during transportation reduces the mortality of African catfish Clarias gariepinus

Abstract

In order to lower the fish mortality during transportation, the chopped banana stem (BS) was added during the African catfish transport procedure. The fish were packed in plastic bags with a density of 100 fish in 1.5 L water. The chopped BS was added into the plastic bags with different concentrations: 0 (control), 5, 10, and 15 mg L−1. The fish were transported for 5 hours. After transportation, the fish, together with the added chopped BS, were distributed into glass tanks and acclimated for 24 h. After 24 h, the results showed that the BS treatments had lower cumulative mortality compared to the control with the lowest mortality was observed at the 15 mg L−1 concentration (p<0.05). The BS treatments also increased the antioxidant defence and the immune status of the fish thus might be responsible for the reduced mortality.