Climate change has greatly altered environmental conditions of aquatic ecosystems in many regions all over the world in the last decades. Temperature and salinity are the main ecological factors influence to the aquatic environment. This study was conducted to assess the protein and energy requirements for maintenance and protein - energy utilization of red tilapia (Oreochromis sp.) in conditions of different salinity at elevated temperature. In the first experiment, red tilapia (13.0±0.12g) were fed at five different feeding rates: 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% satiation for 28 days to evaluate the efficiency of protein and energy utilization and protein and energy requirement for maintenance at different salinities at elevated temperature (0ppt-normal temperature; 6ppt-34oC; and 12ppt-34oC).
The results showed that energy and protein requirements for maintenance at salinity of 0ppt - normal temperature; 6ppt-34oC; and 12ppt-34oC were 24.94 KJ/kg0.80/day-0.43 g/kg0.80/day, 24.94 KJ/kg0.80/day-0.44 g/kg0.80/day, and 11.51 KJ/kg0.80/day-0.16 g/kg0.80 /day, respectively. The efficiency of protein and energy utilization of red tilapia was evaluated.
Acknowledgement
This study is funded by the Can Tho University Improvement Project VN14-P6, supported by a Japanese ODA loan.