EFFECT OF GUAR SPROUT MEAL ON THE GROWTH AND NUTRIENT UTILIZATION OF TILAPIA FINGERLINGS Oreochromis niloticus
Fishmeal has been considered as the main protein source in the commercial fish diets. The emerging demand for fishmeal imposes a major constraint for aquaculture expansion; with less availability of fishmeal; competition for their use with other animal production sectors and considerably higher cost. These significant factors demand sound explorative studies towards replacing fishmeal with other aqua-feed sources. It has been a challenge for aquafeed industry and fish nutritionists since long especially under the light of thoughts on sustainability of capture fisheries. Scientists are searching for alternative protein sources especially from plant based products with nutritional "matching". Guar meal is considered as a potential non-conventional feed ingredient in fish feeds with many other plant proteins. It contains 40-50% protein. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of 'Guar sprout meal' as a protein source for fingerlings of Tilapia in circular FRP tanks of 100 L capacity.
Five experimental diets named as F1, F2, F3, F4 and F5 (isonitrogenous and isolipidic) were formulated containing guar sprout meal at 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% levels by replacing fishmeal and other feed ingredients (Table 1). The experimental diet with 0% guar sprout meal was the control. Each treatment had three replications. The practical diets were fed to triplicate groups of 20 fingerlings (4.26 ± 0.021 g mean initial body weight) at 5-7% of their body weight, twice daily for a period of 45 days. Significant differences were evident between treatment groups (P<0.05) on growth parameters, SGR and FCR. Among the tested doses, diet containing 25% guar sprout meal showed significantly higher final weight, percentage weight gain and specific growth rate compared to other treatments and control diet (Table 2).
