An 8‐week feeding trial was conducted to assess dietary protein and lipid levels on growth performance, feed utilization and body composition of juvenile red‐spotted grouper (7.85 ± 0.03 g fish−1). Nine semi‐purified diets were formulated containing varying protein levels (440–520 g kg−1, dry matter) and lipid levels (60–120 g kg−1, dry matter). The weight gain of juvenile Epinephelus akaara was affected by dietary protein (p = .005) and its interaction with dietary lipid (p = .020). Viscerosomatic index, intraperitoneal fat ratio and whole‐body lipid level increased with increasing dietary lipid level (p < .001). Nitrogen retention was not affected by dietary protein and lipid, while lipid retention decreased with increasing dietary lipid level (p < .001). The plasma blood urea nitrogen increased with increasing dietary protein level (p = .003). This study showed that diet with 520 g kg−1 protein and 60 g kg−1 lipid with 30.58 mg kJ−1 P:E provided a maximal growth for this species. Moreover, an increase in dietary lipid levels (from 60 to 90 g kg−1) could reduce the protein requirement (from 520 to 480 g kg−1) without affecting the growth performance, while higher fat deposition was observed in fish fed high‐lipid diets.

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The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of different phospholipids (PL) and cholesterol (CH) levels on the growth, moulting and fatty acid composition of juvenile swimming crab, Portunus trituberculatus. Six diets were designed to contain three PL levels (0, 10 and 20 g/kg) and two CH levels (2 and 8 g/kg). Juvenile swimming crabs (3.48 ± 0.02 g/crab) were reared for 8 weeks. The weight gain (WG) was significantly (p < .05) increased by supplementation of 8 g CH/kg of diet. However, no significant interaction between dietary PL and CH levels was found on the growth performance (p > .05). The moulting frequency (MF), protein efficiency ratio (PER) and feed efficiency ratio (FCR) were not significantly (p > .05) affected by the dietary treatments. The serum total cholesterol (TCH) significantly (p > .05) increased with increasing dietary PL level. The C20:4n-6 and C20:5n-3 content of the whole body of crabs increased with the addition of PL to the diet containing 2 g/kg CH of diet. An interaction was observed between PL and CH on certain saturated and unsaturated fatty acid concentrations of body.

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