Dietary Protein Requirement of Juvenile Black Sea Bream, Sparus macrocephalus

Abstract

An 8‐wk experiment was conducted to determine the optimal protein requirement of juvenile black sea bream, Sparus macrocephalus, (initial weight 13.13 ± 0.21 g, mean ± SD) in 18 300‐L indoor flow‐through circular fiberglass tanks provided with sand‐filtered aerated seawater. Six isoenergetic diets were formulated to contain varying protein levels ranging from 31.95 to 48.53% at about 3% protein increments by substituting corn oil and α‐starch for fish meal. Each diet was assigned to triplicate groups of 20 fish in a completely randomized design. Twenty uniform‐sized fish were stocked in a 300‐L indoor flow‐through circular fiberglass tank. After the feeding trial, weight gain and specific growth rate (SGR) increased with increasing levels of dietary protein up to 41.8% (P < 0.05) and both showed a declining tendency thereafter. Survival could not be related to dietary treatments. Both condition factor and protein efficiency ratio declined while dietary protein levels increased (P < 0.05). The highest and the lowest values of hepatosomatic index were found in fish fed 31.9 and 41.8% protein diets (P < 0.05), respectively, and showed no significant difference among other treatments (P > 0.05). Feed efficiency ratio (FER) improved as dietary protein level increased, with the maximum FER in the 41.8% protein diet, although this was not significantly different from the 45.2% protein diets. Apparent digestibility coefficients (ADCs) of main ingredients of diets tended to improve as the protein level increased, although they decreased to a different extent at higher levels of dietary protein. The highest ADC values of organic matter and protein were both found for fish fed 41.8% protein diet, while lipid and energy were at 38.5 and 45.2% protein diet, respectively. The whole‐body protein content was positively correlated with dietary protein levels, while lipid content was negatively correlated. The muscle crude protein and crude lipid contents were significantly affected (P < 0.05) by dietary protein level, while moisture and ash showed no significant differences (P > 0.05). Dietary protein levels had significant influences on plasma parameters (P < 0.05). The concentrations of total cholesterol, triacylglyceride, alanine transaminase, and aspartate transaminase significantly reduced with dietary protein level except plasma total protein contents which presented reverse trend. Analysis of dose (protein level)–response (SGR) with second‐order polynomial regression suggested that the optimal dietary protein requirement was 41.4%.

Re-evaluation of the optimum dietary protein level for maximum growth of juvenile barred knifejaw Oplegnathus fasciatus reared in cages

“…The result shows that possibly the dietary protein was efficiently utilized by fish for protein synthesis which is in agreement with Berger and Halver (1987). Similar results have been reported in other fish species (Bai et al 1999;Kim et al 2004;Kim et al 2005;Hossain et al 2010;Zhang et al 2010). However, Kikuchi et al (1992) and Lee et al (2000) reported that PER values of olive flounder increased with increasing dietary protein levels.…”

“…It has high market value and consumer demand. The dietary protein requirements of several important aquaculture fish species have been determined including channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus (Garling and Wilson 1976); Asian sea bass, Lates calcarifer (Catacutan and Coloso 1995); Indian major carp, Labeo rohita (Das et al 1991); Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (El-Sayed and Teshima 1992); olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus (Kim et al 2005); Korean rockfish, Sebastes schlegelii (Kim et al 2004), and Japanese eel, Anguilla japonica (Okorie et al 2007); black sea bass, Centropristis striata (Alam et al 2008); black sea bream, Sparus macrocephalus (Zhang et al 2010); and silver pomfret, Pampus argenteus (Hossain et al 2010). For most of the cultured species, dietary protein requirement has been found to be between 30 and 55 % of the diet depending on the species, fish size, dietary protein sources, and environmental condition (Hepher 1988;NRC 1993).…”

Digestible Protein Requirement of Pirarucu Juveniles (Arapaima gigas) Reared in Outdoor Aquaculture

“…Kim, Lim, Kang, K. Kim, & Son, 2012;Mohseni, Pourkazemi, Hosseni, Hassani, & Bai, 2013;Coutinho et al, 2014). In some cases, fish body protein content tends to increase with increasing protein level in the diet (Zhang, Gong, Y. Yuan, Chu, & H. Yuan, 2009;Zhang et al, 2010). However, in the current study, the protein content in the pirarucu youth fillet was not significantly affected by the dietary DP levels.…”

Glycolysis and gluconeogenesis in the liver of catfish fed with different concentrations of proteins, lipids and carbohydrates

“…The optimal concentration of dietary protein is different among fishes and depends on the food habit (omnivorous or carnivorous). For example, the best weight gains are in pintado Pseudoplatystoma corruscans (Lundstedt et al, 2004), Mugil platanus (Carvalho et al, 2010), Sparus macrocephalus (Zhang et al, 2010). Concerning carbohydrates, the recommended amount to reach the best performance is also distinct among fishes.…”