EFFECT OF ALL PLANT-PROTEIN DIETS SUPPLEMENTED WITH L-METHIONINE AND L-LYSINE ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF HETEROBRANCHUS BIDORSALIS JUVENILES

Abstract

A feeding trial was conducted to investigate the growth performance of Heterobranchus bidorsalis fingerlings fed all-plant-protein diets supplemented with two limiting amino acids. At the start of the experiment, ten glass aquaria tanks of size 70cm x 45cm x 40cm volume/one were stocked with 150 juveniles of Heterobranchus bidorsalis mean weight (6.8+0.1g) at 30 fish per treatment in three replicates for five treatments including the control, using completely randomized design. Except for the Control (D1 ), fish were fed with all-plant-protein diets (D2-D5 ) containing corn gluten meal, soybean meal and Groundnut cake for 70 ays. Fish were fed twice per day at 10:00 and 18:00 hours respectively. It was observed that fish fed with D1 significantly (P<0.05) had the best growth performance in terms of Net Protein utilization (8.33+0.06), Specific Growth Rate (1.17+0.06), Final Mean Weight (60.10+0.04) and Protein Efficiency Ratio (0.86+0.06). Feed Conversion Ratio was highest in fish fed D5 (3.11+0.02) with the poorest growth performance. It could be deduced from the results that juveniles of Heterobranchus bidorsalis requires the minimal inclusion of plant –protein materials in its diets for optimum growth.><0.05) had the best growth performance in terms of Net Protein utilization (8.33+0.06), Specific Growth Rate (1.17+0.06), Final Mean Weight (60.10+0.04) and Protein Efficiency Ratio (0.86+0.06). Feed Conversion Ratio was highest in fish fed D5 (3.11+0.02) with the poorest growth performance. It could be deduced from the results that juveniles of Heterobranchus bidorsalis requires the minimal inclusion of plant –protein materials in its diets for optimum growth.