Open AccessFeeding of juvenile cobia, Rachycentron canadum : Evaluation of practical feeds, comparison of commercial fishmeal replacers, and estimation of essential amino acid requirements
Author(s) -
Raggi Thiago,
Tacon Albert G. J.,
Lemos Daniel
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of the world aquaculture society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.655
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1749-7345
pISSN - 0893-8849
DOI - 10.1111/jwas.12587
Subject(s) - biology , fish meal , juvenile , fishery , zoology , feed conversion ratio , meal , aquaculture , food science , fish <actinopterygii> , body weight , ecology , endocrinology
Three studies were conducted with juvenile cobia, Rachycentron canadum : (Study 1) a 10‐week feeding trial within floating net cages to test the nutritional efficacy of different dietary feeding regimes (trash‐fish control diet, a semimoist diet, an in‐house dry formulated diet, and a commercial cobia feed); (Study 2) a 10‐week feeding trial within an indoor water‐recirculating tank‐based system to test the nutritional efficiency of different potential dietary fishmeal replacers (poultry byproduct meal, soy protein concentrate, feather meal), a diet without taurine supplementation, and a commercial cobia feed; and (Study 3) estimation of the essential amino acid (EAA) requirements of cobia based on EAA whole‐body composition in fast‐growing cobia fed a trash‐fish‐based diet. Fish performance in terms of growth and feed efficiency was the greatest within the outdoor net‐cage feeding trial, with fish fed the control trash‐fish‐based diet exhibiting the best performance. Although fish growth was poorer within the indoor feeding trials, fish performance was similar for most diets, with apparent crude protein digestibility coefficients of over 75% being obtained in all experimental diets in both feeding trials. The estimated EAA requirements of cobia obtained during this study were similar to those reported for other similar marine carnivorous fish species.