Maggot Production Using Selected Substrates and Attractants and Its Utilization as Replacement for Fishmeal in Diet of Clarias gariepinus

Fish feed account for over 70% of the total cost of fish production, this is due to the high cost of its components most especially fishmeal which is highly expensive and imported. Trials to replace costly fishmeal in fish diets with maggot meal have shown promising results. However, wide use of maggot meal in aquaculture feed industry is limited due to unavailability of adequate amounts of maggot meal. Therefore, this study was carried out to determine the best possible substrates and attractants combination for production of housefly larvae. Also the study examined the growth performance and nutrient utilization of Clarias gariepinus juveniles fed the produced maggot meal as an alternative to the fishmeal in their respective diet. Maggot production experiment was laid out as a 3 substrates (brewer’s waste, poultry droppings and cow dung) by 3 attractants (Kitchen waste, spoilt fruits and abattoir waste) factorial in a complete randomized 
design (CRD). Each treatment was replicated three times. A total of twenty-seven (27) units was used for the project. While for the fish trial the experimental design consist of five (5) dietary treatment with three (3) replicates each. Diet 1 with 0% maggot meal (MGM) inclusion served as control; diet 2 (25% MGM), diet 3(50% MGM), diet 4 (75% MGM) and diet 5(100% MGM). The result show that the best substrate for maggot production among the selected substrate was brewer’s waste (76.06 g/kg) abattoir waste, (65.62 g/kg) kitchen waste and (58.55 g/kg) spoilt fruit while the best fly attractant among the tested attractants was abattoir waste (76.06 g/kg) brewer’s waste, 31.48 g/kg (poultry waste) and 19.18 g/kg (cow dung). Thus, for maggot production, a combination of brewer’s waste and abattoir waste was recorded as the best in terms of quantity of maggot produced. C. gariepinus fed with diets containing maggot meal as a replacement for fishmeal. It was observed the diet containing 50% of maggot meal and 50% fishmeal recorded the best value for mean weight gain (3.29 g), feed intake (2.99 g), feed conversion ratio (1.34), relative weight gain (13.74) and specific growth rate (1.88). Therefore, for optimum production of C. gariepinus, maggot meal inclusion level should be limited to 50%. The study has clearly demonstrated that some selected substrates can be fully utilized in the production of Musca domestica larva for fish feed formulation.