Use of Turkey Meal as a Replacement for Menhaden Fish Meal in Practical Diets for Sunshine Bass Grown in Cages

Abstract

A 391-d feeding trial was conducted with caged juvenile (mean weight = 36.2 g, SD = 8.04 g) sunshine bass (female white bass Morone chrysops × male striped bass M. saxatilis) to evaluate growth, feed conversion, protein efficiency ratio, body composition, and fillet composition resulting from diets with decreasing levels of fish meal (FM; 30, 20, 10, and 0%) and increasing levels of turkey meal (TM; 0.0, 9.7, 17.5, and 26.4%). We stocked 100 randomly selected fish into each of 12 floating cages (3.5 m³). Twice daily, fish were fed all they could consume in 30 min. Four practical diets were formulated to contain 40% protein and to be isoenergetic. After 391 d, significant (P ≤ 0.05) differences were found in growth; fish fed the control diet (30% FM, 0% TM) had higher individual final weight, percent weight gain, and specific growth rate than fish fed 10.0% FM and 17.5% TM. However, differences for those variables were not apparent between the control group and fish fed the 20% FM and 9.7% TM diet or the 0% FM and 26.4% TM diet. Diet composition did not significantly alter amount of diet fed, feed conversion ratio, protein efficiency ratio, percent survival, fillet yield, or hepatosomatic index among treatments. Results indicate that sunshine bass grown in cages for 391 d can be fed a diet containing 0% FM and 26.4% TM without adverse effects on growth, feed conversion ratio, and body composition; more diverse diet formulations for sunshine bass and reduced usage of menhaden fish meal are therefore possible.