Digestible threonine requirement in diets for tambatinga (♀colossoma macropomum x ♂piaractus brachypomus) fingerlings

Abstract

Cross breeding of native fish species is a technique to produce hybrids that can express higher weight gain and feed efficiency compared to the parental species. The digestible threonine requirement in diets for tambatinga fingerlings (Colossoma macropomum ♀ x Piaractus brachypomus ♂) was determined in this study. For this, 700 fingerlings with an average initial weight of 2.39 ±0.02 g and average final weight of 35.96 ±2.03 g were distributed in a completely randomized design consisting of six treatments (0.600, 0.800, 1.000, 1.200, 1.400, and 1.600% digestible threonine) and five replicates per treatment, with 20 fish per experimental unit. Diets were formulated by the “diet dilution” technique using the ideal protein concept. Performance, feed efficiency, body depositions of protein, ash and fat, and nitrogen retention efficiency of the fish were evaluated. The digestible threonine levels that optimized weight gain, specific growth rate, and feed conversion ratio were 1.40, 1.27 and 1.10%, respectively. Body deposition of fat was reduced in a quadratic manner (p<0.01), and the body depositions of protein and ash, together with the efficiency of nitrogen retention, were optimized by the digestible threonine level of 1.20; 1.33, and 0.82%, respectively. The recommended digestible threonine level in the diet for tambatinga fingerlings is 1.20 to 1.40% (0.40 and 0.47% Mcal DE–1) to obtain higher body deposition of protein and weight gain, respectively.