Supplementation of four non-conventional aquatic weeds to the basal diet of <I>Catla catla</I> and <I>Cirrhinus mrigala</I> fingerlings: Effect on growth, protein utilization and body composition of fish

Abstract

. 2008. Supplementation of four non-conventional aquatic weeds to the basal diet of Catla catla and Cirrhinus mrigala fingerlings: Effect on growth, protein utilization and body composition of fish. Acta Ichthyol. Piscat. 38 (1): 21-27.Background. Our previous study has shown that four aquatic weeds viz. Asian watermoss, Salvinia cucullata; water spinach Ipomoea reptans; water chestnut, Trapa natans; and lesser duckweed, Lemna minor) from northeast India are important sources of proteins, vitamins and minerals, suitable for incorporation in fish diet. The aim of the present study was to compare the efficacy of these aquatic weeds based formulated diets on growth, feed utilization and nutrient turnover from feed to fish flesh of fingerlings of two species of Indian major carps: catla, Catla catla (Hamilton, 1822), and mrigal, Cirrhinus mrigala (Bloch, 1795). Material and Methods. The fingerlings were hand-sorted and distributed in 15 glass aquaria (each having 50 l capacity) at a stocking density of 5 fishes per aquarium. Five formulated diets (containing 26%-28% of crude protein approximately) were prepared and analyzed for proximate composition. The diets were fed to catla and mrigal fingerlings in triplicate treatments at the rate 3% of body weight for 60 days and fish performance in terms of growth, feed utilization and carcass composition was evaluated. Results. The whole body composition and energy content of C. catla fingerlings before and at the end of feeding trials did not differ significantly (P > 0.05), however, the proportion of crude lipid content was high when fed with diet F 2 (P < 0.05). In case of C. mrigala, crude protein, as well as lipid contents, were significantly higher in all the groups of fish at the end of experiment as compared to the initial fish. The hepatic-as well as the muscle tissues of catla and mrigal fingerlings fed the diet F 2 (containing I. reptans) displayed high contents of crude protein and vitamin E (P < 0.01). Interestingly, although no difference in muscle glycogen level in C. mrigala was observed irrespective of the diet fed however, muscle and liver glycogen contents in Catla catla fingerlings fed F 2 diet was significantly higher compared to glycogen contents of these tissues of initial fish or fish fed with control diet. Conclusions. Presently reported study suggests that I. reptans, being a rich source of nutrients, is suitable for incorporation in fish diet for C. catla and C. mrigala fingerlings.

Perspectives on utilization of macrophytes as feed ingredient for fish in future aquaculture

“…Its apparent digestibility was observed to vary between species and the inclusion level (Murthy & Devaraj 1990;Hasan & Roy 1994;Debnath et al 2018). I. reptans is reported to contain a higher content of nutrients and lower antinutritional factors; therefore, it has the potential to be used as an ingredient for compounding low-cost nutritious feed for fingerlings of Indian carps viz, catla and mrigal (Kalita et al 2008). L. minor and I. reptans may be utilized as supplementary feed in commercial aquafeed, mainly for the preparation of carnivorous fish feed as the two plants are reported to have low carbohydrate and high-protein contents (Kalita et al 2007).…”

“…For the same reason, various studies have been carried out on the substitution of costlier proteins of marine origin with inexpensive plant protein such as Mucuna pruriens seed meal (Siddhuraju & Becker 2001); Glycine max (Refstie et al 1998); Psophocarpus tetragonolobus (Fagbenro, 1999); Morus indica leaf meal (Mondal et al 2012); Leucaena leucocephala (Bairagi et al 2004); tuber meal and leaf meal of Manihot esculenta (Lukuyu et al 2014); Cynodon dactylon (Kaleeswaran et al 2011); leaf protein concentrate and leaf meal of Medicago sativa (Olevera-Novoa et al 1990); and various legumes (Hossain et al 2001) like Vigna ungiculata and V. radiate (Ghosh et al 2018). Among the macrophytes, Azolla (Quattrocchi 2000; Abou et al 2007;Gangadhar et al 2014;Gangadhar et al 2015), Salvinia, Ipomoea, Trapa, Lemna (Kalita et al 2008), Pistia (Nisha & Geetha 2017;Adedokun et al 2017) and duckweed (Bairagi et al 2002;Yilmaz et al 2004) have been assayed as potential components in aquafeeds (Tables 1-3). Accessibility towards the high-grade and inexpensive diets is the main aspect of sustainability of the fishery industry (Ghosh & Ray 2017;Goswami et al 2020).…”

Applications of plant ingredients for tropical and subtropical freshwater finfish: possibilities and challenges

“…; Kalita et al . , ), or fermentation substrate for production of microbial bioproducts (Bairagi et al . ; Saha & Ray ; Banerjee & Ghosh ).…”

“…; Kalita et al . ; Ghosh & Mandal ), it is important to utilize existing processing techniques and invent new biotechnologies to reduce the content of ANFs, and increase the bioavailability of nutrients so that nonconventional plant feedstuffs can be used as alternative ingredients in formulated feeds (Ghosh & Mandal ; Banerjee & Ghosh ). Readers with special interest in the use of plant products in aquaculture are referred to the reviews of Gatlin et al .…”

Utilization of Trapa natans

“…The nuts has 15% protein, 7.5% fat, 52% starch, 3% sugar and 22.5% water (Zhu, 2016). TN is also an important source in terms of nutrients, protein, minerals and vitamins for fishs (Kalita et al, 2007;Kalita et al, 2008;Mukherjee, et al, 2010). It is also stated in the ancient medicine books in China that TN husks can help fight against various diseases such as diarrhea and alcohol poisoning (Sheng et al, 2006).…”