Oseni M. Millamena, Nelson V. Golez and Joebert D. ToledoSoutheast Asian Fisheries Development Center

Aquaculture DepartmentTigbauan, Iloilo, 5021 Philippines

Development of a practical diet for grow-out culture of grouper Epinephelus coioides.

Phase 1 – Replacement of fish meal by animal by-product meals in apractical diet for grow-out culture of grouper Epinephelus coioides

Phase 2 – Evaluation of processed meat solubles as replacement for fish meal in the diet for juvenile grouper Epinephelus coioides

Phase 3 – Replacement of fish meal by lupin meal in a practical diet forjuvenile grouper Epinephelus coioides

Replacement of fish meal by animal by-product meals in a practical diet for grow-out culture of

grouper Epinephelus coioides

Oseni M. MillamenaSoutheast Asian Fisheries Development Center

Aquaculture DepartmentTigbauan, Iloilo

Philippines

Grouper Epinephelus coioides

a popular food fish in Southeast Asiaexcellent meat quality and high market

valuefast growth and efficient feed conversion

Main constraints to grouper culture

limited availability of frysourced from the wild.

trash fish asmain feed source.

Fish meal is themost commonprotein sourcein aqua feeds

Global production of fish meal is in astate of decline

Need to develop suitable grow-out dietwith minimum of fish meal and fisheryproducts.

To develop a practical diet for juvenilegrouper

low content of fish meal, as alternative to trash fish feeding.

Experimental Diets

Eight isonitrogenous diets were formulated tocontain 44% protein and 12% lipid

Fish meal was replaced by 0%-100% meat mealand blood meal (4:1) in diets 1 - 8

Diet with 100% fish meal (diet 1) or trash fish asfeed (diet 9) were used as controls

Table 1. Composition of the experimental diets in g/100gdry diet

Diets (% fish meal replacement)Ingredients 1

0%2

10%3

20%4

30%5

40%6

60%7

80%8

100%

Fish meal 40 36 32 28 24 16 8 0

Meat meal 0 4 8 12 16 24 32 40

Blood meal 0 1 2 3 4 6 8 10

Other ingredients = shrimp meal (10%), soybean meal (6%), squid meal (1%),cod liver oil (6%), wheat flour (15%), vitamin/mineral mix(7%), vitamin C (60 ppm) and rice bran as filler

fish meal : meat meal & blood mealDiets (%) (%)

1 100 : 02 90 : 103 80 : 204 70 : 305 60 : 406 40 : 607 20 : 808 0 : 1009 trash fish

Culture

Experimental set-up250-L circular fiberglass tanks,PVC pipes as shelter,sand-filtered sea water,flow-through system

Experimental fishGrouper Epinephelus coioides,initial BW = 6.0 ± 2g,25 fish per tank

Experimental designCRD with 4 replicates per treatment

Parametersweight gain,survival, specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR),body composition of grouper

Proximate analysis of experimental diets.

Table 2. Proximate composition (%) of the diets andtrash fish

Diet Moisture Crudeprotein

Crudefat

Crudefiber NFE* Ash

1 (0) 2.4 44.4 12.2 3.8 23.0 14.3

2 (10) 2.8 43.3 11.9 3.6 24.2 14.2

3 (20) 2.8 44.8 11.7 3.7 22.2 14.6

4 (30) 2.8 43.8 12.1 2.2 22.9 15.9

5 (40) 2.7 43.7 11.7 2.1 23.8 16.0

6 (60) 4.0 43.9 11.5 1.7 22.6 16.3

7 (80) 4.0 43.6 11.3 1.7 22.8 16.6

8 (100) 3.8 44.0 11.5 1.8 22.2 16.9

9 (Trash fish) 4.2 68.2 5.5 0.1 20.0 20.1

*nitrogen free extract

Growth, survival and feed conversionratio of grouper juveniles.

Table 3. Weight gain, specific growth rate, survival andfeed conversion ratio of juvenile grouper fed thediets for 60 days1. n = 23-25 fish

Diet Weight gain SGR2 Survival (%) FCR3

1 (0) 501.6ab 2.95a 95 a 1.002 (10) 539.5 ab 3.06 a 100 a 0.993 (20) 570.4 a 3.13 a 99 a 0.954 (30) 529.3 ab 3.04 a 96 a 0.985 (40) 493.8 ab 2.93 a 99 a 1.026 (60) 500.7 ab 2.95 a 100 a 1.057 (80) 491.7 ab 2.92 ab 99 a 1.04

8 (100) 448.0 b 2.82 b 96 a 0.999 (trash fish) 524.7 ab 3.02 ab 90 b 0.95

1Treatment means with unlike superscripts are significantly different (P>0.05).2SGR = (ln final wt - ln initial wt) x 100/ln initial wt.3FCR = amount of feed given (g) unit/unit amount of wet gain (g).

Proximate composition of grouperjuveniles after 60 days of culture

Table 4. Proximate composition (%) of grouperjuveniles on wet tissue basis after 60 days ofculturen = 10 (no. of fish used for analysis)

Diet(% fish mealreplacement)

%moisture

Crudeprotein

(%)

Crude fat(%)

Crude fiber(%) NFE (%) Ash (%)

1 (0) 4.18 55.9 18.0 0.17 4.7 17.2

2 (10) 4.30 54.9 17.8 0.19 4.7 17.5

3 (20) 4.42 55.5 16.9 0.27 5.7 17.1

4 (30) 4.82 53.2 16.1 0.28 8.9 16.7

5 (40) 4.56 53.8 18.1 0.26 7.6 15.7

6 (60) 4.58 52.9 18.2 0.27 7.6 16.4

7 (80) 5.05 54.4 16.4 0.21 7.5 16.4

8 (100) 4.61 55.8 16.8 0.24 6.0 16.6

9 (Trash fish) 4.62 56.9 15.8 0.23 5.8 16.6

Comparison of essential amino acid(EAA) content in fish meal, meat andbone meal and blood meal mixture,with the EAA pattern of grouperjuveniles

Table 5. Comparison of essential amino acid content in fishmeal with meat meal and blood meal in diets 1-8 withEAA pattern in grouper in g AA/g TCA protein

Diets (% replacement)Amino

acidGrouperjuveniles 1

(0)2

(10)3

(20)4

(30)5

(40)6

(60)7

(80)8

(100)

Arg 2.50 3.00 3.09 3.19 3.28 3.38 3.56 3.76 3.94His 1.20 1.73 1.79 1.84 1.90 2.01 2.07 2.18 2.29Ile 1.66 2.48 2.33 2.19 2.04 1.88 1.60 1.30 1.01Leu 5.04 6.31 6.46 6.60 6.75 7.00 7.19 7.48 7.77Lys 4.60 5.22 5.11 5.00 4.88 4.82 4.55 4.32 4.10

Met 1.82 2.05 1.95 1.84 1.74 1.64 1.43 1.23 1.02Phe 2.47 2.43 2.45 2.57 2.68 2.85 3.02 3.25 3.47Thr 2.76 2.83 2.84 2.84 2.85 2.87 2.87 2.88 2.90Trp - - 0.04 0.09 0.13 0.18 0.27 0.36 0.45Val 1.89 2.86 3.00 3.14 3.29 3.49 3.71 4.00 4.28

No significant differences (P>0.05)in growth among fish fed diets 1- 8(0-80% MM + BM).

Fish fed diet 8 (100% MM) hadsignificantly lower growth comparedto diet 3 (20% MM) that gave the bestgrowth.

Survival among fish fed diets 1-8 did notsignificantly differ (95-100%), but wassignificantly higher than survival (90%) intrash fish-fed group.

Feed conversion ratio were high at 0.95-1.05and did not significantly differ (P<0.05)indicating efficient feed conversion.

Up to 80% FM protein can be replaced byprocessed animal by-product meals with noadverse effects on growth, survival, and FCR of E. coioides juveniles.Use of meat meal reduces the requirement fortrash fish, another fishery resource which isextensively used as feed.From the economic standpoint, use of cheaperanimal by-product meals in a practical diet forgrouper can alleviate the problem of low fishmeal availability and high cost.

This study is a collaborative effort between:This study is a collaborative effort between:

Southeast Asian Fisheries Development CenterAquaculture Department

(SEAFDEC/AQD)