Unavailability of halal-compliant hito (catfish) and its products in the local and domestic market is of primordial concern. Proliferations of hito meat fed with non-Halal feeds is another major issue, especially in Muslim-dominated localities. Non-availability of Halal-compliant hito feeds for commercialization is a big challenge for concern agencies, Muslim group of Halal advocates, researchers, local investors and religious leaders.
       
Hito meat are someway preference of local communities both Muslims and Non-Muslims because of its taste edge over other sea/fresh water fish. However, due to limited sources/lack of halal feeds and the issue of feedings with haram meat, intestine and other waste product of any animals to hito farms, local consumers opted to buy other fish because these are clean/pure and readily available in the markets.
       
Feeds formulated as Mash feeds and pellet feeds made from combination of ingredients using household waste such as fish waste, sugarcane fiber waste, chicken fats and used palm oil is an excellent feed for fish (Nadirul et al., 2020). This new formulated fish feed pellet has low turbidity value and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) level, which help in maintaining the quality of water. It was found that the new pellet may slightly reduce the pH of the water at the low composition of protein sources.
       
To address these issues and concerns, the researchers develop a research topic aimed at producing Halal-compliant Hito Feeds from different formulation and pelletized mixed plants ingredient.

Place of study
 
The study was conducted in Experimental area of the Cotabato Foundation College of Science and Technology, Doroluman Arakan Cotabato Philippines with coordinates 7°20′48"N 125°05′38" (Fig 1) from September 2022, to August 2023.

Materials
 
Shade house has been constructed (Fig 2) with small concrete ponds (Fig 2a) for fingerlings growth and development. Bigger concrete pond (Fig 2b) is also established for the transfer of larger African hito to avoid eating of smaller fish in the pond.






       
Production of halal-compliant fish pellet had been carried out by using hammer and pelletizing machine (Fig 3).



Concrete pond establishment
 
Fingerlings were hatched in the small concrete pond with a dimension of 1 m × 2 m (Fig 2a and 2b). There were four small concrete ponds constructed were 300 fingerlings were place per pond as treatments comprising a total of 1,200 fingerlings hatched in the 4ponds constructed.
 
Shade house construction
 
Fingerlings were placed in the pond for growth and development under shade (Fig 2). The production of the shaded pond have been assisted to determine if there are difference on African hito growth and production as influence by the different pelletized plant ingredients measured in a monthly basis after 3 months culturing in the ponds.
 
Production of Halal-compliant fish pellet
 
Home-made fish pellet composed of agricultural and aquatic by-products, indigenous grasses, legumes, grains, fish oil have been produced for the feeding of the African hito. It is done through pelletizing of the collected and dried plant parts/fruit ingredients with all mixtures in a designated pelletizing machine brought from China with a capacity of 150 kg per hour (Fig 3).
 
Feeding trials
 
Compounded feeds will be subjected to feeding trials in the African Hito fingerling under controlled environment. Feeding is done twice a day (Morning and late afternoon) at standard rate of 3% - 5% of the total body weight per day on the first month of culture. As the hito grow, this rate is gradually decrease by 0.5% every month to improve feed conversion efficiency and maintain water quality of the pond. The water of the pond is sourced out from the rain and can only be changed during heavy rains. Parameters such as initial body weight, monthly weight gain, final weight and Feed Conversion Efficiency will be gathered to measure the quality and efficiency of the feed mixtures relative to the performance of the fingerlings.
 
Experimental design        
 
The experiment is laid out in the constructed four concrete ponds with a dimension of 1 m × 2 m utilizing randomized Complete blocked design (RCBD) with 4 treatment replicated 3 times with 10 sample hito per treatment.
 
Halal ingredients mixed plant parts treatment

Hito production
 
3^th Months after stocking
 
Table 1, column 2 presents the mean weight of 10 sample African hito harvested/collected per treatment after three months of stocking. It was found out that treatment 3 gave the heaviest mean weight of 0.84 kg followed by treatment 1 (control) of 0.74 kg, treatment 2 (0.72 kg) and the least is treatment 4 (0.63 kg).


       
Analysis of Variance revealed a highly significant difference between treatments. Treatment 3 is significantly heavier as compared to treatment 4 but not to treatment 2 and the control. In livestock farming, the source of animal feed should be of the undoubted source to produce livestock that does not bring discredit on the status of livestock in the future. Good nutrition in livestock production systems is essential to economical production of a healthy, high-quality product. In fish farming (aquaculture), nutrition is critical because feed typically represents approximately 50 per cent of the variable production cost. (Craig et al., 2017). The study of Rasal et al. (2026) reported a mean harvest weight of Jayanti Rohu Cultured in Freshwater and Low-salinity Pond Conditions of about 865.43±4.17 g with 89.1% survival.
 
4^th Month sampling
 
It was found out that the same treatment 3 has the heaviest mean weight of 0.91 kg in four months sampling (Table 1, column 3) followed by treatment 1 (control) and Treatment 2 of 0.77 kg respectively and the least is treatment 4 (0.68 kg).
         
Analysis of Variance revealed a highly significant difference between treatments. Treatment 3 is significantly heavier compared to treatment 4 but insignificantly different with the 2 and control treatments. Fish Pellets made from combination of ingredients using household waste such as fish waste, sugarcane fiber waste, chicken fats and used palm oil is an excellent feed for fish as a result of the study of Nadirul et al., (2020).
 
5^th Month sampling
 
It was found out that treatment 3 still has the heaviest mean weight of 1.15 kg in five months (Table 1, column 4) followed by treatment 2 and the control Treatment.
       
Analysis of Variance revealed a highly significant difference between treatments. Treatment 3 is significantly heavier compared to all other treatments. The importance of proper storage of feeds should be highlighted because major knowledge gaps exist amongst the earthen fishpond farmers in feed formulation, preparation, use and management (Hasan and New, 2013).
 
6^th Month sampling
 
It was found out that treatment 3 consistently gave the heaviest mean weight of 1.18 kg in six months (Table 1, column 5) followed by treatment 1 (control) and Treatment 2 of 0.88 kg and 0.83 kg respectively and the least is treatment 4 (0.74 kg).
        
Analysis of Variance revealed a highly significant difference between treatments. Treatment 3 is significantly heavier compared to treatment 4 but insignificantly different with the 2 and control treatments.
       
According to Lingam et al., (2025), the growth and survival of striped catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus) decline at salinity levels exceeding 10 ppt, as evidenced by reductions in specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR), feed efficiency ratio (FER) and protein efficiency ratio (PER). While the 10 ppt group exhibited significantly higher amylase and protease activities, the 15 ppt group showed marked stress responses, with blood cortisol and glucose levels peaking at 97.71±1.94 ng/ml and 113.32±2.66 mg/dl, respectively. Ultimately, the study demonstrates that P. hypophthalmus can be successfully cultured in low-salinity water up to 10 ppt without compromising growth or physiological homeostasis.
 
Percentage of total harvest
 
Treatment 3 has the highest harvest percentage 6 months after stocking of 87.33% (Table 2) followed by the control treatment of 84.67%  and the least is Treatment 2 of 82%. Analysis of Variance revealed no significant difference between and among the different treatments.


       
Good nutrition in animal production systems is essential to economical production of a healthy, high-quality product. In fish farming (aquaculture), nutrition is critical because feed typically represents approximately 50 per cent of the variable production cost. (Craig et al., 2017). The fishes undergoing 1 day starvation + 4 days refeeding (1D4R)) exhibited significantly higher weight gain (Tanuja et al., 2026). The findings of Tanuja et al., (2026) suggest that one-day feed restriction followed by four days of refeeding could be an efficient strategy for rearing Labeo rohita fry to reduce production costs and environmental impact without compromising growth.
 
Estimated production
 
Out of 1,200 fingerling stocks, there were 1,013 total harvest or 84.42% harvest percentage. The total gross production is about PhP166,492.00. Treatment 3 has the highest production of about 56,073.60 Philippine peso followed by the control treatment of 40,233.60 PhP and the least is treatment 4 of only PhP33,433.20 (Table 3).

Based on the findings of this study, we recommend a field trials tovalidate the results of this particular study and get a more reliable findings considering other factors. After which, the formulated feed ingredients number 3 (treatment 3) will be mass produced for commercial purposes.

Treatment 3 gave the best results in terms of weigh of harvest from 3 to 6 months sampling as well as harvest percentage and production. With this finding, the authors concluded that pelletizing mixed plant ingredients of 20% squash flour; 5% fish oil; 10% trichanthera leaves powder; 5% Malungay leaves powder; 10% RBDI; 20% banana flour (saba); 30% cassava flour will promote higher harvest in hito farming of about 28% as computed based on treatment 3 harvest and the control treatment (commercial feeds).

We would like to acknowledge the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) by providing the grant through the DOST 12 Grant-in-Aid Program making this project possible. To Engr. Sammy Malawan and panel of evaluators by supporting the implementation of this project.

The authors declare no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this research paper.