Biotechnology Of Floating Feed Development

Abstract

The study was conducted on the Development of floating diets for catfish and tilapia fish species, involving a single cell organism and three non living additives as floaters, two indigenous starches and an organic hydro-colloid as binders. Physical, Bio-chemical qualities and Characteristics of Lemnapaucicostata(Duckweed), Honey comb (HC) , Saccharomyces cerevisiae(Sc) Baker's yeast floaters, Cooked and Uncooked  Wheat flour starch (WFS), Cassava tuber starch (CTS) and Aquatec-11 binders were investigated and validated.   Twenty one (28) is-proteic 30% Crude protein, is-caloric 37Kcal/g diets were produced with live and non-living additives formulated asproteins and lipids sources;the binders and other carbohydrate sources formed the energy sources of nutrients. The diets were developed intopellets, flakes and ball shapes and investigated for Flotation for one hour at 10 minutes interval.  There were increases or buoyancy in balls and pellets which were attributed to the presence of gas and some distinguished nutrients in the floaters and binding agents involved in diets preparation. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in Flotation of diets produced from cooked starches,the uncooked wheat flour starch and Aquatec-11 with S. cerevisiae, Lemnapaucicostata and Honey comb floaters in the first 30 minutes of trials. No flotation was observed in diets without floater. Subsequent research works (in other papers) revealed positive growth, feed utilization and survival in catfish and Tilapia fishes; all agents were therefore recommended for fish feed production