Evaluation of five commercial diets used for fish feeding in Basra governorate, southern Iraq

Abstract

An nine week laboratory study was carried out to compare the quality of five commercial diets with the brand name Alsabah (SD), Marine Science Center (CD), Aljanaby (JD), Efico sigma 860 (ED) and Arasco (AD) diets in order to ascertain the extent to which they meet the nutritional requirements of common carp Cyprinus carpio fingerlings with mean initial weight 15.74+1.04 g. Fish fed AD diet exhibited significantly (P<0.05) highest specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion efficiency (FCE) and protein efficiency ratio (PER). While the lowest values were obtained in fish fed CD and JD diets. Fish fed diets containing approximately 30% protein (AD and SD) had significantly (P<0.05) higher PER values indicating maximal protein utilization. Also, results mentioned that satiation level (SL) were affected by energy content, bulk density and water stability of the diets. The lowest SL was observed for fish fed AD and ED diets. Significantly (P<0.05) higher water stability was recorded in AD and ED than SD, CD and JD diets. However, the markedly high SGR, FCE, PER and water stability values along with lower SL obtained with AD diet suggested that diet promoted better characteristics for cultured fish comparing with the other diets.