North African catfish - Nutritional deficiencies

Except for the studies by Morris, Baker and Davies (1998), Fagbenro and Nwanna (1999), Adham et al. (2000) and Adewolu and Aro (2009), very little is known about vitamin and amino acid deficiencies in C. gariepinus. The known gross clinical deficiency signs are shown in Table 12a.

In the absence of specific data, it is best to assess possible vitamin deficiency signs in North African catfish by using those described by Butthep, Sitasit and Boonyaratpalin (1985) for Clarias batrachus (Table 12b).

Given the euryphagic natural diet of North African catfish, it is highly unlikely that the species will experience mineral and vitamin deficiencies under extensive or small-scale pond culture conditions. Signs would probably only manifest under intensive pond or high-density tank culture conditions and where the fish are entirely reliant on formulated feeds.