Replacing fishmeal with pretreated Lima bean improves growth, feed utilization, whole-body composition and nutrient retention in Nile-tilapia fingerlings

ABSTRACT

The present study aimed to assess the effect of replacing fishmeal (FM) with soaked, cooked Lima bean meal (LBM) on growth, feed utilization, body composition and nutrient retention in Nile tilapia fingerlings, weighing 3.63 ± 0.81 g. Fingerlings (375) were randomly divided into five treatments and fed a commercial feed (CF), a control diet (D0) and three experimental diets (D25, D50 and D75) where FM was replaced by LBM at 25%, 50% and 75%. The results obtained with CF, D25 and D50 indicate significant variations in weight gain (52.71 ± 3.42 g, 35.01 ± 2.01 g and 35.89 ± 3.06 g), specific growth rate (4.02 ± 0.12%g/d, 3.42 ± 0.08%g/d and 3.41 ± 0.13%g/d), feed conversion ratio (1.14 ± 0.03, 1.73 ± 0.10 and 1.71 ± 0.14), compared to D0 (28.32 ± 0.93 g, 3.13 ± 0.09%g/d and 2.16 ± 0.06). The same observations were noted with regards to the body composition of proteins, lipids and ashes as well as their retention, compared to D0. These results indicate that LBM, when appropriately treated can replace FM up to 50% in formulating feed for Nile tilapia.

KEYWORDS:

• Nile tilapia
• fishmeal
• Lima bean
• growth
• feed utilization
• nutrient retention

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Mr. Marcelin Djouani Ngatcham, Head of the Kumba Fish Breeding Center for his assistance in the field and the provision of technical equipment. Thank Dr Lawrence Oben Mbeng for improving the quality of this article. Special thanks to Dr Gregloire Abessolo for the statistical analyzes.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there are no competing interests regarding the publication of this paper.