Effect of replacing fishmeal with soybean meal on growth, feed conversion and carcass composition of fingerling oreochromis niloticus (Nile Tilapia)‎

Abstract EN

A feeding trial was conducted to replace the fish meal (FM) protein by soybean meal (SBM) protein in the feeds for fingerling oreochromis niloticus (0.57±0.05g; 3.54±0.18 cm) six practical diets (35% crude protein; 16.28 kJ g-1 gross energy) replacing 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100% fish meal protein by soybean meal protein were prepared.

the diets were fed to triplicate groups of fish near to satiation for 6 weeks.

the live weight gain (LWG, 308.77-608.77%), protein retention efficiency (4.03-25.74%), specific growth rate (1.75-4.11%/day), feed conversion ratio (1.54-3.47), and protein efficiency ratio (0.82-1.86), in fish fed diets with 0, 20 and 40% replacement of fish meal with SBM did not show any significant differences.

however, further replacement of fish meal by soybean meal beyond 40% resulted in significant fall in above parameters indicating that fish meal could be replace by soybean meal up to 40%, which would be useful in formulating cost-effective commercial feeds for the intensive culture of this fish.