The enhancement of nutrients utilization is one of the ways to boost aquaculture production. This has achieved severally with the use of some additives. However, some of the additives do not come cheap. Moreover, the residual effects of some of the additives on fish have been called to question. This has necessitated the need for natural additives. Synedrella nodiflora (SN) weed extract has been used for various nutritio nal purposes in human, however, there is no record of its use in aquaculture. This study therefore focused on analyzing the phytochemical content of SN and determining its implication on growth performance of Clarias gariepinus. Fresh leaves of SN were taken, the extracts gotten with a Soxhlet apparatus and subjected to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for phytochemical analysis . Five isonitrogenous diets were made with the extract included at 0% (TRT1), 0.5% (TRT2), 1.0% (TRT3), 1.5% (TRT4) and 2.0% (TRT5). Juveniles of C. gariepinus (n=300, average weight, 6.03±0.03g) were fed with the formulated feeds for 84 days. Data were subjected to analysis of variance and means were separated using Duncan multiple range system.
The obtained results showed that SN extract contained L-Pyroglutamic acid (8.16%) , Caryophyllene (11.05%), linoleic acid at (12.63%), and squalene (0.79%) among others (Table 1) . Growth p erformance m etrics showed that the highest weight gain (9.85±0.90g), specific growth ratio (1.72±0.09%/day), and feed conversion ratio (1.51±0.21) were gotten in TRT3 which significantly different from the rest (p≤0.05) while t he best survival rate (86.67±3.33%) was recorded in both TRT2 and TRT3. It is however not significantly different from the rest
It is therefore concluded that SN extract is rich in bioactive phytochemicals that can positively affects the growth performance of Clarias gariepinus at an optimal inclusion level of 1.0%.
Keywords: Plant extract , Synedrella nodiflora , African catfish, Aquaculture, Survival