EVALUATION OF FEEDING SYSTEMS ON PERFORMANCE AND FEED UTILIZATION OF MEAGRE (ARGYROSOMUS REGIUS ASSO, 1801) UNDER EGYPTIAN CONDITIONS

EVALUATION OF FEEDING SYSTEMS ON PERFORMANCE AND FEED UTILIZATION OF MEAGRE (ARGYROSOMUS REGIUS ASSO, 1801) UNDER EGYPTIAN CONDITIONS

Eid, A.E.¹; Abdel-Ghany, F.M.²; Doaa K. Khames ³;

Ragaa A. Ahmed.⁴ and Baghdady, E.S.⁴

¹Dept. of Animal and Fish Resources- Faculty of Agriculture- Suez Canal University- Ismailia41522-Egypt.

²Dept. Animal Production, Fish Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

³Dept. of Fish Nutrition, Central Laboratory of aquaculture Research, Abbass abohammad , Sharkya. Egypt.

⁴Dept. of Aquaculture Faculty of Fish and Fisheries Technology, Aswan University.

ABSTRACT

The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of feeding Meager artificial feed and trash fish in a private fish farm in Eldebba.. The fish were fed the experimental diets (artificial and trash fish) twice a day, 6 days a week. The trial was continued for 360 days (12 months). The growth performance of the tested fish cleared that there were a significant difference between the two feedings. The group of meager fed trash fish had a significantly (P<0.05) higher final body weight, weight gain, weight gain percent, SGR final length, length gain, length gain percent and SGR in length than the group of fish artificial feed. The group of fish fed artificial feed had a significantly lower survival rate than feeding trash fish.

There were no significant (P≥0.05) differences among treatments for chemical composition of the fish body. The artificial feeds increased the costs of producing one kg of body weight gain of the fish 34.20 and 25 LE. The economic evaluation showed that Meager fed trash fish had the higher production 6165.89 Kg/feddan and net return (318353.4 LE) than Meager fed artificial feed 4779.30 Kg/feddan and net return 223445.42 LE. The retune/Cost return investment was higher in Meager fed trash fish 6.17 and 3.50 LE for Meager fed artificial feed. It could be concluded that feeding Meager trash fish was the best in terms of growth performance and economic evaluation under the present experimental condition.

Keywords: Meagre culture – Natural feed – Artificial feed – Growth – Nutrients utilization – Fish composition – Economic efficiency.