MJAS

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Fish offal meal as an alternative protein source of fish meal for Tilapia, Oreochromis sp.

Farahiyah, I. J.*, Wong, H.K., Zainal, A.A.R. and Ahmad, A.

Animal Science Research Centre, Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, Persiaran MARDI-UPM, 43400, Serdang, Selangor

Malaysian J. Anim. Sci. 2015 18(2): 81-86

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The use of local feedstuffs to substitute conventional feedstuffs in fish nutrition has been widely studied. However, there is no report to date on the use of by-products from fish processing plants as feed for fish. The lack of locally available feedstuff for aquaculture feeds has encouraged the use of by-products from local sources, such as fish offal meal (FOM),a feedstuff derived from the discarded parts of fish obtained from the fish processing industry that are unfit for human consumption and can be a valuable protein source in aquaculture diets. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of using FOM as a protein substitute of fishmeal (FM) in tilapia diets. FOM was prepared from discarded fish parts collected from a wet market in Serdang Selangor through the process of drying and grinding. A total of 480 red hybrid tilapia juveniles, Oreochromis spp. were allotted equally to four treatment groups: 50, 80 and 100% replacement of FM with FOM in the diet and a control diet of commercial feed. The data collected consists of weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR), specific growth rate (SGR), protein efficiency ratio (PER), survival rate and water quality parameters. At 26 wk of culture, fish fed with 100% substitution of FM with FOM showed the best performance with highest body weight gain (p<0.05), feed intake, SGR, PER and lowest FCR. This study shows that substitution of 100% FM with FOM has no negative or detrimental effect on the growth performance of tilapia while producing the best result in term of body weight gain.