Evaluation of Fish Silage as an Alternative Protein Source for Fish Meal Replacement in Diets for Pacu, Piaractus brachypomus (Cuvier, 1818) Fingerlings
Shubham
Department of Aquaculture, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh-224229, India.
Ajay Kumar Yadav
*
Department of Aquaculture, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh-224229, India.
Pradip Kumar Maurya
Department of Fish Processing Technology, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh-224229, India.
Dinesh Kumar
Department of Aquaculture, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh-224229, India.
Jyoti Saroj
Department of Fisheries Resource Management, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh-224229, India.
C. P. Singh
Department of Fisheries Resource Management, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh-224229, India.
Sumit Kumar
Department of Aquatic Environment Management, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh-224229, India.
Devarshi Ranjan
Department of Aquaculture, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh-224229, India.
Anil Singh
Department of Aquaculture, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh-224229, India.
Devendra Kumar
Department of Aquaculture, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh-224229, India.
Shivaji Dwivedi
Department of Aquaculture, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh-224229, India.
Abhishek Kumar
Department of Aquaculture, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh-224229, India.
Anurag Kumar
Department of Aquaculture, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh-224229, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
This study evaluated fish silage as an alternative protein source for replacing fish meal in the diet of pacu fingerlings (Piaractus brachypomus). A 90-day feeding trial involving fifteen experimental tanks was conducted to rear pacu fingerlings. These tanks were assigned to five dietary treatments, with three replicates for each treatment. The treatments were: Control (100% fish meal), T1 (25% replacement of fish meal protein with fish silage), T2 (50% replacement), T3 (75% replacement), and T4 (100% replacement). Fifteen healthy fingerlings were introduced into each aerated tank and fed the experimental diets twice daily at a rate of 5% of their body weight throughout the experiment. The prepared fish silage achieved a pH level of 3.5 after a 30-day ensiling period, indicating its effective preservation and suitability as an ingredient for aquafeed. Water quality parameters such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, total dissolved solids (TDS), total ammonia and nitrite were monitored weekly and no significant differences (p>0.05) were observed among the various groups. The growth parameters evaluated were: body length, weight, percentage weight gain (WG %), specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR), protein efficiency ratio (PER), and survival rate. The results revealed significant (p<0.05) differences in growth and survival among the various dietary treatments. Treatment T2, in which 50% of the fish meal was substituted with fish silage, exhibited the highest final body length (10.26±0.03 cm) and body weight (25.87 ± 0.04 g), percentage weight gain (871.54±35.19%), SGR (2.16±0.04%/day), PER (0.72 ± 0.06), and survival rate (97.08±0.75%), as well as the lowest FCR (2.18±0.01) compared with the control and other treatment groups. The experiment concluded that fish silage can replace up to 50% of fish meal protein in the diet of P. brachypomus fingerlings without adversely affecting growth performance.
Keywords: Fish silage, fish meal replacement, Piaractus brachypomus, aquafeed, growth performance, feed conversion ratio, protein efficiency ratio, survival rate, water quality, sustainable aquaculture.