Coconut husk meal in diets for tambaqui (“Colossoma macropomum”)

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate growth performance and economic viability of tambaqui fed different levels of coconut husk meal (0;25;50 and 100). Thus, a 60-day feeding trial was performed to evaluate the effect of dietary graded levels of coconut husk meal on growth performance of tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) and economic viability. One hundred and twenty tambaqui fingerlings with 7.71±0.17g were randomly assigned to 24 150L-aquaria in a completely randomized experimental design with four treatments and six replication. Diets were formulated to contain the same content of protein (26% CP), digestible energy (3200kcal DE/kg diet) and crude fiber (8.51%) differing only on the coconut husk meal replacement levels which were 0% (control diet), 25, 50 and 100%. Although no effect of coconut husk meal inclusion were observed for daily weight gain, daily feed intake, feed conversion ratio, specific growth rate, protein efficiency ratio and fillet yield, a negative and positive linear regression was significant for hepatossomatic and fat visceral indexes, respectively. The use of coconut husk meal in diets for tambaqui did not affect growth performance and carcass quality parameters. However, it is recommended the replacement of soybean meal to coconut husk meal up to 25% based on the economic evaluation of the diets.