Effect of different cooking oils on the activity and survival of juvenile Clarias gariepinus during transportation

Abstract

One of the very affordable means of fish transportation is the use of jerricans with trace quantity of cooking oils added to the transporting medium. These oils are added to ensure survival of fish en-transit. This work seeks to test the effect of different cooking oils on the activity and survival during transportation of juvenile Clarias gariepinus. The experiment was set up as a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) made up of four treatments of oil additions namely; T1 (control; transportation water without oil), T2 (transportation water with palm oil), T3 (transportation water with groundnut oil), T4 (transportation water with sunflower oil), T5 (transportation water with ripe palm fruit). Each treatment was replicated three times. Some water quality parameters were measured while survival and mobility of the fish as well as the cost per litre of the oils were also evaluated. The result shows significant differences (p<0.05) in DO with T5 (0.700mg/l) having the least dissolved oxygen while T1 (2.967mg/l) had the highest dissolved oxygen. T1 (6.484) had the least pH while T5 (6.833) had the highest pH. T3 (4.857) had the least Total Ammonia Nitrogen while T5 (4.857ppm) had the highest Total Ammonia Nitrogen (8ppm). T5 (1.5) had the least mobility indicating moderately active while T1(1.25) had the highest mobility indicating high activity. There was no significant differences (p<0.05) in fish mortality. Soya bean oil (N2800) was the most expensive and significantly different(p<0.05) from the other Treatments. It was concluded that transporting medium containing palm oil holds the best potential based on cost per litre, dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, survival rate, mobility and Total Ammonia Nitrogen.