Global Journal of Science Frontier Research, D: Agriculture and Veterinary, Volume 23 Issue 4

Replacement of Fish Meal with Soybean Meal on Growth Performance of Monosex Nile Tilapia ( Oreochromis Niloticus ) Fish Diet Sonu kandel α , Mina Mahatara σ , Ram Bhajan Mandal ρ & Jay Dev Bista Ѡ Abstract- Fish meal (FM) has excellent protein and lipid profile. However, FM is losing its acceptability and substituted with plant protein due to high price, high demand, and sustainability issues in global aquaculture production. In this study, experimental diets were prepared by substituting FM with soybean meal (SM) to assess the effects on growth performance. study was carried out by rearing 240 Oreochromis niloticus fries (0.1g) in 12 hapa in earthen pond for 65 days in Kathar, Chitwan. The fishes were fed with four isonitrogenous (27% protein) and isocaloric experimental diets viz. Treatment T 1 (100% fish meal protein), Treatment T 2 (50% fishmeal protein and 50% soybean meal protein), Treatment T 3 (25% fishmeal protein and 75% soybean meal protein) and Treatment T 4 (100% soybean meal protein). Among the treatments the weight gain, mean harvest weight, specific growth rate was obtained with no significant difference (p>0.05) was observed between treatment T 1, T 2 and T 3 but shows statistically significance difference with treatment T 4 . Treatment T 3 (1.35) have higher B: C ratio than other treatment implies to economical farming composition. All water quality parameters like temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity and ammonia etc. measured during the experimental period were found at the desired level. So, the study concludes that fish meal protein can be replaced upto 75% by soybean meal protein in the diet of O. niloticus without affecting the growth performance. Keywords: growth performance, fish meal, soybean meal. I. I ntroduction eed are highest cost occupied material in fish farming. Fish meal constitutes the major protein source used in commercial feeds. Fish meal has traditionally been used as the main feed ingredient in preparation of aqua feeds, due to high protein content and balanced amino acids profile (Mahmoud et al., 2014). Because of its recent sparseness in global production, coupled with increased demand and competition for its use in livestock and poultry feeds, its prices have become unaffordable (Poudel et al., 2020). As fishmeal is a scarce source, sole used of fish meal in aquaculture feed can lead to scarcity. So, for the sustainability in aquaculture feed system, alterative plant by product can be used as protein source. Past researches such as Al-kenway, Naggar and Zead (2008) and Shiau et al. (1990) have suggested to use plant protein sources to partially or completely replaced fish meal without reducing the growth performance on Tilapia (Agbo et al., 2011). Tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ) is important aquaculture species in South Asia and is consumed regularly by locals when available (Shrestha et al., 2018). Tilapia belongs to Cichlidae family, it is warm water fish species. Because of its fast growth, tolerance to wide range of environmental condition, ready market, resistance to disease and stress, admissible to artificial feed, and ability to reproduce in captivity and short regeneration time all those aspects make it highly embrace by farmer in their farm. Monosex tilapia O. niloticus does not breed/multiply, which makes it easy for fish farmers to avoid uncontrolled breeding in their farms. The shortage of the fishmeal resource has posed to develop some substitute protein sources to diminish feed cost and meet the protein necessitate of fish as well. Plant-based protein diet can be alternative to fishmeal as they are locally and readily available and cheaper in cost. Since aquaculture sector uses 2–5 times more fishmeal to feed farmed species than what is supplied by the farmed product , study can prove beneficial to formulate fish diet to reduce fishmeal reliance and substitute it with widely available soyabean meal (Ogunji, 2004). However, deficiency or imbalance of some essential amino acids, as well as the existence of anti-nutritional factors in soyabean (such as trypsin inhibitors, phytic acid and tannins) can have pernicious effects on fish growth performance, intestinal health and immune response (Tadele, 2015). Tilapia are omni- vorous fish feeding on wide range of natural food available in pond, and also aggressively feed on formulated feed. Fish are fed with 24-26% CP feed @ 2% body weight daily on monoculture system (Abdel- Aziz et al., 2021). So, feed occupies major portion in cost of production (COP). Poor budgetary plan, not proper management strategies and lack of quality fish feed are major problem of Nepalese fish sector (Karki, 2016). F Author α σ: Department of Aquaculture, Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. e-mail: mahataramina72@gmail.com Author ρ: Department of Aquaculture, IAAS, Paklihawa Campus, Bhairahawa, Nepal. Author Ѡ: Department of Aquaculture, Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Nepal. Global Journal of Science Frontier Research ( D ) XXIII Issue IV Version I Year 2023 31 © 2023 Global Journals The