Dry whey meal as a protein source in practical diets for Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus fingerlings

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted as a trial of using dry whey meal (DWM) as a substitute for fish meal (FM) in practical diets for Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus. Triplicate fish groups were fed on five isonitrogenous (30.2%) and isolipidic (6.9%) diets. The control diet (D1) used FM as the sole protein source. In the other four diets (D2–D5), FM protein was substituted by 25, 50, 75, or 100% DWM. Fish (3.5 ± 0.1 g) were stocked at a rate of 20 fish per 100-L aquarium and fed one of the tested diets up to satiation twice daily for 12 weeks. Fish growth, feed utilization, protein efficiency ratio, apparent protein utilization, and energy utilization for fish fed DWM diets up to 75% FM (D2–D4) tended to be higher but were not statistically different than the control diet. No significant effect of diet was found in whole-body moisture, crude protein, and total ash contents. Whole-body lipid content in fish fed the 100% DWM (D5) diet was significantly higher than that for fish fed the control diet. The optimal replacement level of FM by DWM was estimated by second-order polynomial regression to be 62.5%.

KEYWORDS:

• Dry whey meal
• feed utilization
• fish growth
• fishmeal
• Nile tilapia
• whole-body composition

Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the assistance provided by Medhat E. A. Seden and Mohamed H. Ahmad, Department of Fish Nutrition, Central Laboratory of Aquaculture Research, Abbassa, Sharqia, Egypt for their help during the running of this study. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Randall E. Brummett, Agriculture & Rural Development Department, World Bank, Washington DC, USA, for editing this article.