Effect of Different Dietary Protein Levels on Physio-metabolic Response during Stunting of Milkfish, Chanos chanos (Forsskal, 1775) Reared under Pond Conditions

Abstract

Background: Stunting is a process of suppressing growth from unfavourable conditions. The protein supplementation during stunting gives scope to maintain the nutrient reserves of fish and its quality. Methods: A feeding trial was conducted for eight months to study the effect of three hetero-nitrogenous diets with 25% (control), 30% (T1) and 35% (T2) crude protein (CP) levels on growth and physio-metabolic responses of Chanos chanos fingerlings during stunting. Milk fish fingerlings with a mean body weight of 11.71±0.18 g were stocked in earthen ponds @ 20 no/m2 in each replicate (n=3) was fed @ 2% biomass throughout the experiment. Result: Fish fed with T1 diet showed better specific growth rate (0.64±0.01% d-1), weight gain percentage (362.56±14.95) and protease activity (7.53±0.25 U/mg protein). Whereas, lower activity was observed for the enzyme assay, namely superoxide dismutase (45.41±2.50 U/min/mg protein), aspartate aminotransferase (34.01±1.88 U/min/mg protein) and alanine aminotransferase (39.64±0.64 U/min/mg protein). Hence, it may be concluded that the dietary protein inclusion level of 30% CP showed better growth performance and lower physio-metabolic response in milkfish fingerlings during the stunting.

Role of Broodstock Nutrition and its Impacts on Fish Reproductive Output: An Overview

“…Surjobala et al (2021) worked on the effect of graded protein levels on the growth, survival and body composition of Osteobrama belangeri using semi purified diet and suggests that the optimum dietary protein level of 25% gives the best performance in terms of growth, survival, feed utilization and whole-body carcass composition of O. belangeri. Whereas, Prasad et al (2022) studied effect of different dietary protein levels on physio-metabolic response during stunting of milkfish, Chanos chanos reared under pond conditions and concluded that that the dietary protein level has a significant role in producing quality milkfish fingerlings during stunting. Squid meal protein, which makes up a large part of the fat-insoluble portion, has been shown to improve egg quality (Fernandez-Palacios et al 1995).…”