A 6-weeks feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effect of green pea Pisum sativum as alternative protein source for fish meal on the growth performance and feed conversi on ratio for tilapia Oreochromis andersonii . The experiment was carried out at Kapasa Makasa University, where twelve hapas (70 x70 x 70cm deep) installed in four (4) 2 x 1.2x 1m concrete ponds in a completely randomized design. All treatmen ts were replicated three times. 120 O. andersoni i juvenile (15-20g pooled weight and 7.5-10cm pooled standard length) were randomly allotted to four experimental diets at a stocking density of 10 juveniles per hapa (70 x70 x 70cm deep) were used for 6 weeks to stock O. andersonii . Four experimental diets were prepared with the inc reasing substitution levels of green pea s (GP) for fish meal (FM) at 0% (0nly FM36% ) control treatment, 20% (GP20 and FM30) treatment 2, 25% (GP25 and FM25) treatment3 and 28%(GP28 and FM20) treatment4 in a 38% crude protein. The weight gain (WG) of fish (23.52g) fed GP0% diet was comparable to fish fed GP20% diet (24.04g), fish fed GP25% diet (21.93g) and fish fed GP28% diet (20.89 g) and did not differ significantly (p >0.05). The feed conversion ratio of fish fed (GP20, GP25, GP28%) were comparable to the control fish and no significant different (p>0.05). No significant differences (p > 0.05) were found in the change specific growth rate and change length among the different treatments. It appears that green peas can replace fish meal at the level of 20%, 25% and 28% in diets for O. andersonii without adverse effects on growth, feed conversion ratio and this may also contribute to reduce feed cost to sustain aquaculture.
Keywords: Aquaculture; Fish m eal; Green peas; Growth performance ; Juvenile; Tilapia