The effect of different protein sources in supplementary feeds on tilapia (<i>Oreochromis niloticus</i>) in floating net-cages

Abstract

The effect of locally available protein sources including fish meal (FM), soyabean meal (SBM), groundnut cake (GNC), and blood meal (BM)) at 25% inclusion level in pelleted 'feed layers concentrate/corn bran in ratio 1:3, and premix 1.0%) were tested on tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) in floating net-cages. O. niloticus fingerlings with mean weight, of 20,0g±0.84 were stocked at 50 fish/m³ and fed the different feeds at 5% body weight for a culture 120-day culture period. GNC in feed (28.02% crude protein, CP) performed best in terms of daily weight gain, final average weight/fish, feed conversion ratio (FCR), specific growth rate (SGR) and total fish production; closely followed by BM in feed (40.28% CP) but worst performance was in fish fed FM in feed (33.27%CP). The mean total fish production (kg/m³) in treatment receiving GNC in feed was significantly different from mean total fish production in all the remaining three treatments (P<0.05)

Key words: Tilapia production, protein sources in feeds, net-cages