IOSR Journal of Agriculture and Veterinary Science (IOSR-JAVS) e-ISSN: 2319-2380, p-ISSN: 2319-2372.Volume 7, Issue 1 Ver. V (Feb. 2014), PP 89-92 www.iosrjournals.org www.iosrjournals.org 89 | Page Breadwaste as a Dietary Supplement for Maize in the Practical Diets of African Giant Catfish (Clarias Gariepinus, Burchell 1822) Fingerlings. Fakunmoju F.A. Department Of Fisheries Technology, Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu – Lagos, Nigeria Abstract: Experiment was conducted to evaluate the growth performance of African giant catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fed varying levels of bread waste based diets. Three hundred (300) clarias gariepinus fingerlings with mean body weight of 5.2±0.1g were assigned to five diets (c.p = 42%) in which bread waste meal replaced maize at 0, 25, 50, 75, 100% respectively in a completely randomized design replicated 3 times. The trial fish were fed at 5% body weight daily for a period of 24 days. Data collected showed that body weight gain increased with increase bread waste meal in the diet (p<0.05). Similar observation was recorded for feed intake but there was no significant (p>0.05) difference in feed conversion ratio among the treatments. All the fish fed the test ingredients performed better than the control group; hence, bread waste meal could be recommended as a dietary supplement in the diets of African giant catfish. Keywords: Bread waste meal, Clarias gariepinus, supplement, growth performance, diets. I. Introduction The animal protein intake of average Nigerian is low compared to other developed nations of the world FAO (1992). In order to increase the animal protein intake, there is need for expansion of livestock industry which is the main source of the protein. One of the challenges facing livestock industry in Nigeria is high cost of feed which has led to closure of some farms. The use of agro – industrial by-products(AIBS) has been one of the panacea to high feed cost, several authors have used different (AIB) such as pineapple waste, Bambara groundnut, poultry waste (chicken offal, rice bran, castor oil bean, kolanut husk, rumen content, blood rumen, sunflower seed cake, shrimp waste meal, etc. Ademiji C.A. (2005): Ani A.O and A.V. Okorie (2005); Dairo et al (2005); Babatunde, et al (2001); Hamzat et al (2004). Bread waste, a by product of bakery industry is rich in energy, low in fibre but high in vitamins has been used to replace maize in the diet of broiler, Abdulatif, et al (2004); Dabron et al (1999), which has led to reduction in feed cost. Bread waste is cheap and available in bakery industry in Nigeria. There is paucity of information on the use of bread waste in the diet of snails hence this study was conducted to determine the performance and effect of replacing maize fraction of the diet of clarias gariepinus fingerlings with bread waste. II. Materials And Methods Experimental site and sample preparation The experiment was conducted at the Department of fisheries technology lagos state polytechnic Ikorodu, lagos state. The sample (Bread waste} were collected from UAC foods limited, lagos. They were sun dried for two weeks, grind and sieved to produce bread waste meal. Sample of the meal was analysed for proximate composition (Table 2). Feed formulation The meal produced (bread waste) was mixed with other feeding ingredients to formulate five iso- nitrogeneous diets at 43% crude protein in which bread waste meal was to replace maize at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% respectively, while the control diet (0%) contained no bread waste meal. The diets produced were passed through a pelleting machine of die 2mm to produce pellets. Thereafter, the pelleted feeds were sun dried to crispy for four (4) days to prevent the growth of moulds and were packed in water proof bags and labelled accordingly before storage at room temperature. These were later analysed using the A.O.A.C Official method of analysis (1995). Experimental fish and design Three hundred (300) catfish fingerlings with an average of 5.2g body weight were purchased from a commercial hatchery in Ikorodu lagos state. They were acclimatized for seven (7) days and fed with control diet (0%) subsequently, they were randomly assigned to the five treatment diet at 60 fish per treatment in hapa measuring 1.1 by 0.9m suspended in outdoor concrete tank measuring 3.3 x 3.3m. Each treatment is replicated