Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) Larvae for Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) On-Farm Feeding: Effect on Performance and Profitability.

Abstract

0.41, 0.42, 0.44 and 0.52 for treatments diets T0, T100, T25, T50 and T75 respectively. Treatment diet T25 recorded the lowest feed conversion ratio (FCR) compared to the other treatments diets.Further, the results indicated that survival rates from different treatment groups in the study were significantly different (P<0.05) with the highest being recorded in T75 and T100 at 95.83% and 95.00% respectively while T0, T25 and T50 resulted to survival rates of 91.67%, 90.83% and 93.33% respectively. The increasing levels of BSFL substitution with FM resulted in a corresponding reduction in feeding costs, which yielded higher gross profit margins. Treatment group T75 realized the highest return on investment (ROI) followed by T100. The cost benefit ratio (CBR) of diet group T100 was the highest followed by T75 with the lowest being realized from T0 diet. The study found that 75% (T75) replacement of FM with BSFL meal was ideal for optimal weight gain,feed conversion ratio (FCR), specific growth rate (SGR) and conditional factor (K).