International Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Research

Authors
Daba Tugie, Megerssa Endebu, Darbew Hailu, Alemu Lema

Abstract
The experiment was conducted to screen Oreochromis niloticus strains for their better production through selecting the strain with superior growth performance from four origin Lakes namely Chamo, Koka, Zeway and Awassa. The produced offspring from wild parents were reared in separate concrete tanks for 240 days in similar conditions in between June 2016 and January 2017. Only at the fry age in hapa for 1.5 months they were fed 30- 35% CP feed consisted of 50% fishmeal, 25% fine wheat bran and Noug cake 25% at 10% body weight in powder form. After, fries were stocked at the density of 5.2fish/ m² in separated grow-out concrete tanks and supplied 22.5% CP feed of 50% wheat bran and 50% Noug cake at 5% body weight 2 times a day for 240 experimental days. Final body weight and specific growth rate(SGR%d^-1) of mixed sex O.niloticus progeny for Chamo, Koka, Zeway and Awassa populations were 22.168±1.06g and 1.53%.d^-1; 17.20±1.86g and 1.42%.d^-1, 14.94±0.73g and 1.35%.d^-1 and 14.691±0.77% and 1.34^-1 respectively. The average final body weight of Chamo was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than of Koka Zeway and Awassa strains. There was no significant (P >0.05) difference among Koka, Zeway and Awassa strains. Finally, it was concluded that mixed sex O.niloticus of Chamo strain attained best growth performance followed by Koka while growth performance of Zeway and Awassa strains were found at 3^rd and 4^th steps respectively under concrete tank culture.