ISSN: 2577-4050
Authors: Mohammed FA, Suliman HMA*, Yousif RA, Mohamed AA, Alhafez AM and Rahma ME
A seven weeks feeding trial was conducted to evaluate growth, feed utilization and body composition of Nile tilapia fry Oreochromis niloticus (8.45 ± 1.73g; 9.36 ± 0.2 cm), fed four isonitrogenous (250 g kg-1 crude protein) and isoenergetic (16.67 kJ g-1 Gross energy) diets in which the main protein contributors were: diets containing replacement levels of 0, 25, 50 and 100% of Fish Meal (FM) digestible protein by Locust Meal LM digestible protein. The experimental design was completely randomized with four treatments and three replicates. Fish were stocked in triplicate groups of 20 fish held in 70 L flow through tanks (water volume 55 L) and fed twice daily (08:00 a.m and 04;30 pm) to apparent satiation. Fish fed diet I exhibited the highest (P < 0.05) values for live weight gain and specific growth rate (% per day). FCR and SGR were better (P < 0.05) in fish-fed diets T0 and T2. Fish-fed diet T1 exhibited lower (P < 0.05) fat and ash contents in carcass. The protein efficiency ratio, absolute body weight live weight gain and feed conversion ratio content ignificantly decreased in fish fed diets containing LM levels 100%. Therefore, LM can replace up to 25% of FM without impairing juvenile Nile tilapia growth performance, feed efficiency and body composition.
Keywords: Growth performance; Locust; Orechromis niloticus; Replacement
