Effect of Several Protein Sources and Other Factors on the Growth of Tilapia nilotica*1

Abstract

The feeding trials were conducted to examine the effects of several protein sources and other factors on the weight gain, feed conversion efficiency (FCE), and protein efficiency ratio (PER) of Tilapia nilotica, As a protein source, casein-gelatin (3:1) and casein had a higher nutritive value than gelatin, albumin, and a mixture of casein and crystalline amino acids (1: 1). The effects of feeding rate, feeding frequency, stocking density, dietary vitamin level, and a binder on growth of Tilapia were tested with 2 levels in a factorial design using an orthogonal array Ls. As for the weight gain, FCE, and PER, a significant difference (P<0.05) was detected only on the feeding rate. The weight gain was higher at 7.0% feeding rate than at 3.5% feeding rate; whereas the FCE and PER were higher at 3.5% feeding rate than at 7.0% feeding rate. The weight gain, FCE, and PER of Tilapia were not affected by the feeding frequency, stocking density, dietary vitamin level, and the binder under the experimental conditions adopted. © 1986, The Japanese Society of Fisheries Science. All rights reserved.