EFFECT OF DIETARY REPLACEMENT OF FISH MEAL BY FISH SILAGE BASED MIXED PROTEIN SOURCE ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE SILVER BARB (PUNTIUS GONIONOTUS) FRY

Abstract

The study evaluated the effect of dietary fish meal replacement with fish silage based mixed protein (FSMP) source on growth and survival of silver barb fry. For this purpose five isonitrogenous diets were formulated namely T0 (fish meal based control diet), T1 (25% fish meal replacement by FSMP), T2 (50% fish meal replacement by FSMP), T3 (75% fish meal replacement by FSMP) and T4 (100% fish meal replacement by FSMP). FSMP was prepared with one third each of fish silage, groundnut oil cake and soya bean meal on dry weight basis. 225numbers of silver barb fry of average weight (1.0±0.08 g) were randomly distributed in five treatments with triplicates following a completely randomized design and fed with different experimental diets for a period of 90 days. At the end of the experiment the weight gain percentage was significantly (P<0.05) higher (1429.32±127.56) in T3 group with 75% fish meal replacement by FSMP and lower (558.64±185.91) in T0 group fed with fish meal based control diet. Daily weight gain and specific growth rate (SGR) followed the same trend with highest values of 0.16±0.01 and 3.03±0.09 respectively in T3 group. Significantly (P<0.05) better food conversion ratio (2.12±0.04) and higher protein efficiency ratio (1.41±0.03) was also observed in T3 group. Significantly (P<0.05) highest (20.6±0.39) protein productive value (PPV) was observed in T3 group where as significantly highest (40.87±1.26) lipid productivity value (LPV) was observed in control group. Thus, it may be concluded that cost effective diet for Silver Barb (Puntius gonionotus) may be formulated by replacing 75 % of the fish meal with FSMP with better growth performance.