Impact of Graded Levels of Dietary Protein on Elemental Concentration of Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) from Pakistan

Abstract

I n flourishing fish industry, one of the major impediment is the cost of fish feed ingredients of the total production budget (Cheikyula et al., 2020) because fish meal is the preferred gold standard component of fish feed but highly expensive and limited in supply (Radhakrishnan et al., 2016). Although, now it is considered both environmentally and ecologically unsustainable and requires to find alternative proteins due to economic pressure on the aquaculture industry (Turchini et al., 2019). For successful aquaculture, there is a need to replace fish meal for the preparation of fish feeds, particularly for omnivorous fish species. Plant based protein sources can cope the need of the time due to increasing fish culture as population is increasing day by day (Daniel, 2018; Zettle et al., 2019). Alternative plant protein sources like pulses, grains and oilseeds are widely used for economic fish feed preparations (Abdel-Warith et al., 2019).