USE OF SOME NATURAL FEED SUPPLEMENTS TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF FISH

Elaraby, M.E.¹; A.A. Elgamel²;

M.A. Abdel-Baky² and T.A. Aboel-Mkarem²

1General Authority for Fish Resources Development (GAFRD).

2Department of Animal Production- Faculty of Agriculture- Ain Shams University.

Received 7/ 2/ 2013 Accepted 24/ 3/ 2013

Abstract

The present experimental study has been carried out in a closed system at Fish Production Branch, Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Egypt. The aim was to investigate the effect of using some natural feed supplements on the productive performance of Oreochromis niloticus fish. Tilapia fingerlings with initial average body weight between 11.5 – 12.9 g / fish were stocked in twelve plastic tanks (1 m³ water each) at a rate of 85 fish/ tank. The experiment involved three treatments each with four replicates. Two natural feed supplements (Amico-Zime® and Bio-Bud®) were tested. The first treatment was allocated as a control group, while treatment 2 was supplemented with 0.5% Bio-Bud®, and the third treatment was supplemented with 0.5% Amico-Zime®. The whole experimental fish groups were fed daily at a rate of 7% of fish biomass for fish weight between 10 – 40 g/ fish; 5% of fish biomass for fish body weight between 40-70g/ fish and 3% of fish biomass for fish weight between 70g up to the end of the experiment. The daily allowances were divided into three meals at 10.00, 13:00 and 16:00 h. for six days a week. Fish were weighing every two weeks during the experimental period. At the end of the experiment the highest weight gain (95.44 g/fish) was obtained by the third treatment, where Amico-Zime® was used. Fish groups fed bio- Bud® showed the lowest growth performance compared with other two experimental treatments. Also fish groups fed Amico-Zime® showed the highest specific growth rate (2.35%/ d) and the highest relative growth rate (844.83%). Feed utilization parameters showed that fish groups fed Amico-Zime® had better efficiency (1.48 g feed/ g gain) than the other two treatments. Protein efficiency ratio was highest (2.215) in the third treatment (Amico-Zime®), while the lowest value (1.786) was recorded by second treatment (Bio-Bud®). The economical efficiency study showed that the total income and net return was better for group fed Amico-Zime® than the other experimental treatments. The third treatment achieved the highest total return (292.89 LE) while the lowest one (217.02 LE) was achieved by the second treatment. Net return was at highest (127.58 LE.) for the third treatment (Amico-Zime®) then the first treatment (the Control) while the lowest net return (65.11 LE.) was obtained by treatment 2 (Bio-Bud®). It could be concluded that ; by using Amico-Zime® in the present experiment superior productive values were obtained compared with the control and the other natural feed additive (Bio-Bud®).

Keywords: Tilapia, Natural Feed Supplements, Enzyme, Probiotics.

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