The study investigated the performances of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus cereus on African catfish (Clarias anguillaris) fingerlings as potential anti-stress administered at the rate of 30mgl-1. Although, there were fluctuations of the physico-chemical parameters of the water during the transportation; there was no significant difference (P?0.05) throughout. There were significant differences (P?0.05) in the survival of fingerlings treated with both B. subtilis (97. 39 ± 1.0%) and B. cereus (98±0.73 %) during the transportation. The cumulative survival of fingerlings treated with B. subtilis, before, during and post-transportation was lower (93.92 %) than the control, but growth gain was highest (1.6g) with Specific Growth Rate of 0.27g. Fingerlings treated with B. cereus, recorded 98 % cumulative survival, having weight and length gain of 0.9g and 0.9cm and specific growth of 0.15% higher than the control group. So, B. cereus performed better in survivability, while, B. subtilis did better in the growth performance. The pH and electrical conductivity in water treated with both isolates, the temperature and dissolved oxygen for B. subtilis and total dissolved solids for B. cereus increased steadily with significant differences (P?0.05), while the rest recorded higher values at the middle of transportation, but, all were within the optimum values for raising catfish.

Keywords: Fingerlings, Transportation, Probiotics, Anti-stress, Performance