Effect of Dietary Probiotics Isolated from the Gut of Tilapia, Oreochromis mossambicus (Peters, 1852) on its Growth Performance and Digestive Enzyme Activities

Abstract

A 60 days experiment was conducted to determine the effect of different doses of two probiotics on growth parameters and digestive enzyme activities of tilapia, Oreochromis mossambicus. Tilapia were fed with probiotics Lactobacillus plantarum and Bacillus coagulans isolated from the gut of tilapia, at concentrations of 1x10 2 CFU g ?1, 1 ×10 4 CFU g ?1, 1 ×10 6 CFU g ?1, 1 ×10 8 CFU g ?1 and the probiotic bacteria fed separately. The growth parameters such as %weight gain, specific growth rate (SGR), feed conv ersion ratio and feed efficiency and the digestive enzyme assays such as amylase, protease and lipase were measured. During the 60 days experiment all the parameters were measured at 15 days intervals. The results show significant improvement in digestive enzyme activities and growth parameters.