Influence of Temperature on Survivorship and Growth Performance of Heteroclarias Fingerlings under Laboratory Conditions

The need for a beter understanding of the environmental factors that influence productivity of artificial culture of Heteroclarias fish species informed this study. To this end, the effects of different temperature levels, ranging from 27.00 - 32.00°C, on the survival and growth of the fish species was monitored over a period of 12 weeks, under laboratory conditions; following standard procedures. The results showed that temperature had no significant (P > 0.05) effects on total and standard lengths (range = 8.16±0.28cm at 30.000C, to 8.68±0.40cm at 26.91°C; and 7.30±0.23 at 28.00/32.000C to7.63±0.67 at 26.910C, respectively). Body weight (BW), on the other hand, reduced significantly (P < 0.05) with increasing water temperature (range = 190.55±31.50g at 26.91°C, to 154.37°C±15.25g at 32.00°C). Likewise, the indices of weight gain namely, Final Body Weight Gain and Percentage Weight Gain reduced significantly with increasing temperature. However, the mortality of the fishes was not significantly different (P > 0.05) among the temperature-treatment groups. The findings of this study should aid the fine-tuning of field management protocols of Heterclarias artificial culture for optimum productivity.