Effect of Stocking Density on Growth Performance of C. gariepinus and Breeding Values for Key Economic Traits from Three Eco-Regions in Nigeria: River Niger

Breeding Values for economic traits The median breeding value for standard length for progeny reared under high stocking density (Figure 4.13) was highest (0.2891) in the cross ♀H×B♂ with the least value of -1.3318 being recorded for the cross♀N×H♂ and the maximum breeding value of 1.9981 being recorded for progeny from the cross♀N×B♂. [...] The dimensionality of breeding values was reduced to two, with the first- dimension accounting for 61.8% variation while the second dimension accounted for 20.8% of the variation in the breeding values. [...] The dimension reduction to classify the progeny under low stocking density using breeding values shows that the dimension 1 accounted for 53.6% of the variation among the progeny while dimension two (contributed mostly by weight) accounted for 20.8% of the variation. [...] Regardless of cross, the low stocking density of 30 catfishes.m-2 had the best MFW of 611.34g while the high stocking density of 60 catfishes.m-2 had MFW of 573.45g. [...] The effect of stocking density on specific growth rate (SGR) regardless of cross was highest at stocking density of 30 catfish.m-2 (2.48%.day-1) and among the crosses, the highest SGR recorded was for the cross ♀N×B♂ (2.56%.day-1).