Optimal dietary protein requirement of juvenile GIFT Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) reared in inland ground saline water

• Published in: Journal of environmental biology 2022-03, Vol.43 (2), p.205-215
• Main Authors: Paul, M, Sardar, P, Sahu, N P, Varghese, T, Shamna, N, Harikrishna, V, Deo, A D, Jana, P, Singha, K P, Gupta, G, Kumar, M, Krishna, G
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acclimatization; Aquaculture; Body composition; Body weight; Body weight gain; Climate change; Diet; Energy; Environmental conditions; Environmental science; Fish; Fish stocking; Gene expression; Growth factors; Growth rate; Insulin; Insulin-like growth factor I; Insulin-like growth factors; Juveniles; Muscles; Optimization; Oreochromis niloticus; Polynomials; Potassium; Proteins; Regression analysis; Saline water; Salinity; Salinity effects; Tilapia
• ISSN: 0254-8704; 2394-0379
• DOI: 10.22438/eb/43/2/MRN-1905

Aim: The present study was conducted to optimize the dietary protein level in the diet of Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia reared in inland ground saline water (IGSW) of 15 ppt ambient salinity. Methodology: Seven iso-caloric (400 kcal digestible energy, DE/100g), iso-lipidic (6%) and hetero-nitrogenous (20-50% crude protein, CP) purified diets were prepared for conducting the feeding trial. Following completely randomized design, the random distribution of 315 acclimatized fish (average body weight 4.01±0.01g) was made in seven groups namely, CP20, CP25, CP30, CP35, CP40, CP45 and CP50 in triplicate with the stocking density of 15 fish per replicate tank. Results: Weight gain percentage, specific growth rate, and expression of insulin like growth factor-I and insulin like growth factor-I receptor with higher quadratic relation (R2=0.94, 0.96, 0.90 and 0.93, respectively) to the dietary crude protein (CP) level significantly increased (p