Abstract
The African catfish, Clarias gariepinus (Burchell 1822), introduced in Saudi Arabia in 1987 was grown to maturity in outdoor concrete tanks, and induced to spawn. African catfish (C. gariepinus) larvae were reared for four weeks on a combination of dry feed (crude protein, 51%) and live food comprising of freshly hatched Artemia salina nauplii and cultured cladocerans. Excellent growth was recorded when the larvae were fed Artemia nauplii for one week and dry feed for the following three weeks. The final average weight was 1468 mg with a survival rate of 44%. with other combinations (dry feed only; Artemia nauplii only; Artemia and Cladocerans) the final average weight ranged from 355 mg to 1390 mg to 1390 mg and the survival rate varied between 41% to 75%. Similarly the combination of Artemia nauplii and a prepared dry diet also gave good results (final av. wt. 1530 mg in five weeks; survival 68%). Neither Artemia nauplii nor the dry feed alone proved to be suitable diets for larval rearing. Fingerlings weighing about 0.75 g and reared at three densities reached to average weights of 12.6 g (200 fish/m super(3)), 11.7 g (400 fish/m super(3)) and 11.0 g (600 fish/m super(3)) in 35 days, and there was no significant effect of density on growth, survival and feed conversion of C. gariepinus.