Effect of Replacing Fishmeal with Ground nut Cake on Growth, Feed Conversion and Carcass Composition of Fingerling Oreochromis niloticus (Nile Tilapia)

Abstract

In this study, firstly proximate composition and fatty acid profile of oilseed meal used in fish feeds were analyzed and then feasibility of replacing fishmeal with ground nut cake for Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus fingerling by replacing 0% control diet, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% fishmeal protein by ground nut oil cake protein was worked out. Fish were stocked at the rate of 20 per tanks in triplicate groups. Oreochromis niloticus fingerlings (0.57±0.02g; 3.49±0.12 cm) were fed the experimental diets near to satiation for 6 weeks. Diets used in this experiment contained 35% CP and 16.53 kJ.g-1 GE, replacement of fish meal by groundnut oil cake on protein to protein basis was found to be feasible up to 20% as evident by insignificant differences (p<0.05) among the absolute weight gain (2.56±0.05 g/fish), feed conversion ratio (1.68±0.01), protein efficiency ratio (1.70±0.02) and specific growth rate (3.45±0.02%) of fish fed diet 2. However, further replacement of fish meal by ground nut cake protein beyond 20% resulted in a marked decrease (P<0.05) in above parameters.