Effects of Novel Smart-Assisted Automatic Fish Feeder on Growth Parameters and Cost Effectiveness in African Catfish Clarias Gariepinus Juveniles Farming

This study evaluated the effect of a novel smart-assisted automatic fish-feeding system on the growth performance and cost-effectiveness of African catfish during a 56-day trial. Fifty fish were stocked in two 500 L concrete tanks of 1m by 1m by 0.5m at 25 fish per treatment. Treatment one (T1) served as the manually fed control, while Treatment (T2) received smart-assisted feeding. The experiment was duplicated at two scheduled meals, 3% biomass, at real-time water-temperature input and a Q10-based adjustment. A commercial diet containing 45.0% crude protein and 14.0% crude lipid, with calculated gross energy of 21.52 kJ/g was used. Water quality parameters were monitored and did not differ significantly between treatments. T2 produced higher final weight, weight gain, average daily gain, specific growth rate and percentage weight gain, with p = .003 for each comparison. Survival was 100% in T1 and 96% in T2. Feed conversion ratio was lower in T2 (2.39) than in T1 (3.09; p = .004). Total relevant operating cost was ₦20,541.41 for manual feeding and ₦20,785.99 for SmartAQUA, while cost per kilogram of biomass gain was ₦5,888.44 and ₦4,898.29, respectively. The additional 0.755 kg of biomass gain required an incremental operating cost of ₦244.58, equivalent to ₦323.91 per additional kilogram gained. The results show that SmartAQUA improved feeding-time compliance, labour efficiency, feed conversion and operating cost per kilogram of biomass gain. The results indicated that the novel SmartAQUA improved growth and most feed- and nutrient-utilisation indices under the conditions of the study.