Determination of a predictive growth model for cultivated African catfish Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1882)

Abstract

In recent years, aquaculture of the African catfish Clarias gariepinus (Burchell 1882) has experienced rapid growth in Africa, Asia and Europe. In order to improve its rearing systems, it is imperative to determine the individual growth patterns of the species. Individual fish growth is relevant when evaluating commercial viability, planning the time of harvest or projecting profits. In this study, we analysed the growth data of African catfish juveniles reared in an indoor freshwater recirculation aquaculture system and fed five different commercial aquafeeds over a period of 111 days. We fitted five nonlinear growth models—von Bertalanffy, Gompertz, Brody, Richards and logistic—to the weight data and applied the Akaike information criterion, the sum of squares and the maximum likelihood to determine the model that best describes the growth data of the species under the controlled culture conditions. According to the goodness‐of‐fit criteria, the Gompertz model was consistently the one that best described the growth of African catfish. The F‐test showed significant differences (p = 0.05) for one of the experimental feeds (T1,2) that produced the superior growth in terms of rate and biomass.

Growth modelling based on different feeding protocols of turbot ( Psetta maxima )

“…For the assessment of economic and technical performance, growth models are important in aquaculture systems (Musa et al, 2021).…”

“…Increases in size or weight gain are represented by mathematical functions (Lugert et al, 2019;Musa et al, 2021). Thus far, Gompertz, logistic and von Bertalanffy models and the properties The von Bertalanffy model is one of the most widely used models in fish population development (Gamito, 1998).…”

“…For the assessment of economic and technical performance, growth models are important in aquaculture systems (Musa et al, 2021). Increases in size or weight gain are represented by mathematical functions (Lugert et al, 2019; Musa et al, 2021).…”

“…For the assessment of economic and technical performance, growth models are important in aquaculture systems (Musa et al, 2021). Increases in size or weight gain are represented by mathematical functions (Lugert et al, 2019; Musa et al, 2021). Thus far, Gompertz, logistic and von Bertalanffy models and the properties of Chapman‐Richards have been worked elaborately and the first and second differentials of the models (the relative growth rate, the instantaneous growth rates, and the growth acceleration) were used for some property formulas (Wang & Ma, 2016).…”

Growth and population modelling based on density of the Pacific white shrimp intensively cultured in freshwater

“…Mathematical models can be used for planification and projection management in aquaculture systems, as well as to determine technical and economical yield. They can aid in production goals such as harvest, cost–benefit ratios and economic feasibility (De Melo Filho et al, 2020; Mohanty et al, 2018; Musa et al, 2021; Yu & Leung, 2010). Thus, fitness of growth and density curves from empirical data of aquaculture studies is needed to better understand growth patterns that are capable of providing accurate and reliable predictions (Ansah & Frimpong, 2015; Dumas et al, 2007; Lugert et al, 2016).…”