The effect of garlic Allium sativum addition in feed to the growth performance and immune response of tilapia Oreochromis niloticus

Garlic is a type of medicinal plant known to act as an immunostimulant. The purpose of this research is to examine the percentage of garlic extract on growth, survival, and blood profile. The research was conducted at the Research Station for Environmental Technology and Toxicology Freshwater Aquaculture, Cibalagung, Bogor, West Java. Fish reared using aquarium with a size of 60 × 50 × 40 cm, using an aeration system with a stocking density of 20 fish/aquarium. A completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications were performed. The treatments were as followed: A. 0% without garlic in the feed (control); B. 1% garlic in feed; C. 3% garlic in feed, and D. 5% garlic in the feed. The results showed that the addition of garlic extract to the feed had a significant effect on absolute growth and daily growth rate (p>0.05), where the addition of 1% showed the highest value in weight gain (17.75 ± 0.48 g) and daily growth rate (0.42 ± 0.01 g/day), erythrocytes (1.74 × 10 6 cells/mm 3 ), and hemoglobin (6.04 g%). This study can be concluded that adding garlic extract to feed at a dose of 1% or 10 g/kg of feed resulted in the highest growth.