Effect of dietary taurine and cystine on growth performance of juvenile red sea bream Pagrus major

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of dietary taurine and cystine on growth and body composition of juvenile red sea bream Pagrus major. In Experiment I, a casein-based semi-purified diet included a small amount of fish meal were supplemented with taurine at the levels of 0 (control) and 1.0 %. The experimental diets in Experiment II were without fishmeal and supplemented with taurine at 0 (control), 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 % or cystine at 1.0 and 2.0%. These diets were fed three times a day for 6 weeks to fish (average body weight: 2.3g in Experiment I and 2.5g in Experiment II). In Experiment I, fish fed the taurine supplemented diet showed significantly (P<0.05) improved growth, feed efficiency and feed consumption relative to fish fed the unsupplemental diet. The whole body taurine content increased, whereas the non-essential amino acid contents decreased, in fish fed the taurine-supplemental diet compared to fish fed the unsupplemented diet. In Experiment II, the growth, feed efficiency and feed consumption of fish fed the taurine-supplmented diets, irrespective of the dietary taurine levels, were significantly higher than those of fish fed the control diet and the cystine-supplemented diets.Taurine content in the whole body increased with the dietary taurine level, while the taurine contents did not increase by the supplemental cystine. Other free amino acid contents in the taurine supplemented diet groups followed similar trends to those in Experiment I. These results indicate that supplemental taurine to a casein-based semi-purified diet at more than 0.5% improved the growth and feed performance of juvenile red sea bream. It is also suggested that juvenile red sea bream can not metabolize cystine into taurine.3

Performance of Three Different Biofilter Media in Laboratory-Scale Recirculating Systems for Red Seabream Pagrus major Culture

“…Some previous results showed higher SGR than the present results. The SGR values of Biswas et al (2006Biswas et al ( , 2007, Huang et al (2007), and Matsunari et al (2008) were much higher than those recorded in the present study, whereas the FCR values in those studies were much lower than that in the present study. These differences might be due to the size and density of the fish stocked.…”

“…In the present study, the size of fish was much bigger (29.0 g) than the 1.4 g in Biswas et al (2006), 3.6 g in Huang et al (2007), and 2.5 g in Matsunari et al (2008). The rearing density in the present study was much higher (3.7 kg/ m 3 ) than the 0.3 kg/m 3 in Biswas et al (2006), 1.5 kg/m 3 in Huang et al (2007), 1.6 kg/m 3 in Biswas et al (2007), and 0.8 kg/m 3 in Matsunari et al (2008). Conversely, the SGR values in the present study were higher than those reported by Yokoyama et al (2009).…”

“…This temperature range is optimum for this species (Kim, 2000;Biswas et al, 2006Biswas et al, , 2007Biswas et al, , 2008Ren et al, 2006;Oh et al, 2007;Huang et al, 2007;Uyan et al, 2007;Matsunari et al, 2008). DO remained between 7.7 and 8.9 mg/L, which was almost saturation level.…”

“…The optimum water temperature for the growth of red seabream is over 20 o C (Ren et al, 2006;Oh et al, 2007;Huang et al, 2007;Uyan et al, 2007;Biswas et al, 2008;Matsunari et al, 2008). Lower temperatures result in lower food consumption by the red seabream in winter time, with food consumption stopping when temperatures fall below 12°C (Kim, 2000).…”

Progress on larval and juvenile nutrition to improve the quality and health of seawater fish: a review

“…In recent studies, CSD activity was measured in various fish species and found to be high in rainbow trout and tilapia and low in flounder, red sea bream, yellowtail, and bluefin tuna Thunnus orientalis [66,67]. It has also been demonstrated that flounder and red sea bream fed a cystine-supplemented diet do not have increased taurine content [68,69].…”