Evaluation of different animal protein sources in formulating the diets for blue gourami, trichogaster trichopterus fingerlings

Abstract

Based on the nutrient requirement of blue gourami, Trichogaster trichopterus fingerlings as reported earlier, nine experimental diets with 350 g protein, 80-100 g lipid and 16-17 MJ digestible energy/kg diet were formulated using snail meat (D-1), freshwater fish processing waste (D-2), surimi by-product (D-3), chicken offal (D-4), earthworm (D-5), squid (D-6), mussel (T-7), chicken liver (T-8) and lean prawn (T-9) as major protein source in addition to fish meal and peanut oil cake and fed ad libitum to the fish (3.54 ± 0.02 g) for a period of 45 days. Twenty seven indoor circular fiber-reinforced plastic tanks with 200 L of water were used for rearing the fish. At the end of the experiment it was found that the fish fed squid meal Diet (D-6) had the best results in terms of weight gain, food conversion ratio (FCR), specific growth rate (SGR) and protein efficiency ratio (PER). However, the freshwater fish processing waste (D-2) and surimi by-product (D-3) diets had almost similar (p>0.05) growth and dietary performance as that of squid, mussel, chicken liver and lean prawn meal diets and therefore, both these fish processing waste and surimi by-product could be used as non-conventional protein sources in formulating the nutritionally balanced cost-effective diets for blue gourami. © 2013 Mohanta KN, et al.