In 2017, Singapore aquaculture produced 5,891 tonnes and nearly half (2,094 tonnes) was of milkfish Chanos chanos, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Traditionally, milkfish are cultured in floating coastal farms in brackish water. Currently, they are fed with low cost expired confectionary, breadcrumbs or farm-made feeds. Such farm-made feeds may consist of a variety of by-products or other cheap ingredients that are locally available, such as “okara” (solid by-product of soy milk or tofu production), soybean cake (by-product of soy sauce production), chicken innards, rice bran, wheat pollard, dry noodle etc. Such practices may cause a few drawbacks, e.g., negative impact in culture water quality and slow fish growth (more than 12 months for a 500 g fish). To help farmers overcome such issue, this study aims at assessing the growth performance of juvenile milkfish fed commercial feed and pelleted feed using cheap and locally available ingredients.
Juvenile milkfish will be allocated to 300-L tanks in a recirculated water system and fed to satiation twice a day for 12 weeks. The commercial feed and the experimental diet will be assessed in triplicate. The growth performance variable to be measured are weight gain, specific growth rate, feed conversion rate, and survival. In addition to growth, feed quality parameters to be measured are water stability and carcass nutrient deposition.