Background:

Further expansion of aquaculture will depend on balanced and processed feeds that promote optimum productive indicators, particularly in the culture of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus), an area with few related studies. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the effects of diet processing on the productive performance of Clarias gariepinus.

Methods:

Two bioassays were done with the formulation of the balanced feed for African catfish fry cultures. The first assay was based on a comparison of pelleted balance feeds (pelleted T-1), and extruded (extruded T-II). The second experiment included the commercial pellets (pelleted T-III), which were ground and extruded (pelleted/extruded T-IV). Simple classification models with two treatments and three repetitions were done; the data were compared using simple analysis of variance.

Results:

No differences were found (P<0.05) in final weight, feed conversion, and protein efficiency between the pelleted and the extruded feeds. However, extruding significantly improved (P<0.05) the productive performance of Clarias gariepinus fries. Survival was over 90%.

Conclusions:

The utilization of extruded feeds from mixed meals had no significant effects on the productive indicators of Clarias gariepinus. However, extruding the pelleted feed improved the productive performance of these animals.