INCORPORATION OF MAHUA OIL CAKE AS A NON–CONVENTIONAL FEED INGREDIENT IN THE DIET OF AMUR CARP Cyprinus carpio haematopterus LARVAE

The objective of present study is to incorporate mahua (Bassia latifolia) oil cake as a non-conventional feed ingredient to substitute the cake of edible oil seeds in the larval diet without compromising growth and survival.  Mahua oil cake is rich in protein (24%) and energy (19.0 KJ g^-1). The fatty acid fraction is dominated with monoenes (66%) followed by saturates (20%) and PUFA n-6 (7%). Three iso-nitrogenous (35% CP) carp larval diets (D1, D2 and D3) were formulated (Table 1). D1 contained 23% mahua oil cake in association with other ingredients like groundnut oil cake, fish meal, soybean meal and rice bran, whereas, D2 contained all the ingredients except mahua oil cake. As the mixture of groundnut oil cake and rice bran is being traditionally used for carp larval feed across India, in the present study, D3 was formulated with groundnut oil cake and rice bran (3:1) and compared as the control diet. Three days old amur carp larvae (1.6 mg) were reared for two weeks in 400 L FRP tanks in triplicates, 200 in each tank. All the tanks were provided with aeration facility. Larvae were fed ad libitum, four times a day. Uneaten feed was siphoned out after 2 h of each feeding. Routine physico-chemical parameters of water were monitored twice a week except water temperature which was measured daily. At the end of the experiment it was found that there was significant difference (P<0.05) in survival rate of  82, 73, and 46 %  in D1, D2 and D3 groups respectively.  The weight gain (%)  was also   significantly different (P<0.05)  in D1 (2261), D2 (1657) and D3 (1334).

Carcass protein was significantly higher (P<0.05) in  D1 group (65.23±0.1 %) as compared to other dietary groups (Table 2).

The result showed that mahua oil cake could be used as an ideal non-convetional feed ingredient component for amur carp larval feed.