World Aquaculture 2023

May 29 - June 1, 2023

Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

REPLACE OF FISHMEAL BY FIELD CRICKET (Gryllus bimaculatus) MEAL (FCM) IN THE DIETS FOR SEX-REVERSAL AND NURSING OF NILE TILAPIA (Oreochromis niloticus)

Ram C. Bhujel*, Anusha D. Perera

 

Aqua-Centre, School of Environment, Resources and Development (SERD), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand

 



Fishmeal is used as a sole ingredient in the standard feed for the production of monosex tilapia fry. Attempts to reduce fishmeal use have been tried. In this study, field cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus) meal (FCM) was tested to replace fishmeal (FM) at the rates of 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100% in terms of sex-reversal efficiency, survival, growth and feed utilization. Six diets with similar levels of crude protein (55.7±0.2%) were formulated and fed to Nile tilapia fry (8.0±0.1 mg) stocking in 18 aquaria (100 L) at the density of 300 each. They were fed five times a day for 21 days as per the standard protocol. They were raised additional 63 days. Results showed that replacement of fish meal by FCM did not affect the percentage of males which remained high (range 97.2-98.6%) regardless of the replacement rate. During sex-reversal, when the replacement of fishmeal increased from 20% to 80%, growth, survival and feed utilization indicators continue to improve. However, 100% replacement of fishmeal by FCM reduced the growth and survival (Fig. 1). Broken line analysis showed that 80% replacement of fishmeal resulted in highest survival during sex reversal and 85% replacement during the first nursing and no effects on second phase nursing. Highest biomass gains and feed conversion efficiencies were also obtained at 80% replacement for all the phases.