Shrimp meal in diets for Nile tilapia ("Oreochromis niloticus")

Abstract

Replacement of conventional ingredients used in fish diets by non-conventional products has been an economic alternative to reduce the cost of feeding. Therefore, 90-day trial was performed to study the effect of shrimp meal (SM) inclusion on diets of Nile tilapia fries. Weight gain (WG), feed conversion (FC), apparent feed intake (AFI), fillet yield (FY), fillet income (FI) values and protein effiency ratio (PER) were evaluated. Each experimental unit was an aquaria with five tilapias (Oreochromis niloticus), mean body weight of 7,9g, total of 120 animals. Treatments were four diets with 0, 25, 50 and 100% of SM replacing the soybean meal, which protein (28.0%) and energy (3100 kcal/DE/kg) content in diet were similar. Animals were fed three times daily. The offered food was adjusted according to fish live weight. The substitution of soybean by SM reduced WG, FC, AFI, FY and PER. SM inclusion did not affect the FI. Shrimp meal inclusion in diets for Nile tilapia affects negatively the growth performance.