IMPACT OF NATURAL ZEOLITE ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE, FEED EFFICIENCY, AND CARCASS COMPOSITION OF NILE TILAPIA (OREOCHROMIS NILOTICUS, L.) CULTURED AT DIFFERENT STOCKING DENSITIES

Osama A. Zenhom1; Mohammed M. Refaey2;

Ahmad N. Ayyat1 and Hazem G.M. El-Sayed3

1
Central Laboratory for Aquaculture Research, Agriculture Research Center, Egypt.

2
Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Egypt.

3 Regional Center for Foods and Feeds, Agriculture Research Center, Giza, Egypt.

Received 5 /7 /2020

Accepted 23 /8 /2020

ABSTRACT

The present experiment was carried out to evaluate the effects of supplementation of the graded levels of zeolite (0, 50, and 100 g/kg diet) on Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus( reared at two stocking densities (SD) (100 and 200 fish/m3), regarding its growth performance, feed utilization, and fish carcass composition. Fish (9.56 ± 1.77 g) were distributed into sex treatments in triplicates and fed the experimental diets at 3% of live body weight for 15 weeks. The obtained results revealed that fish reared at high SD (200 fish/m3)
had adverse significant effects on growth performance, feed utilization, and fish carcass composition parameters compared to those reared at low SD (100 fish/m3). However, the addition of dietary zeolite at a level of 50 g/kg diet significantly improved these adverse effects of high SD. Hence, the significant interaction between high SD and levels of dietary zeolite was detected in most of the above-mentioned parameters. Therefore, it could be concluded that zeolite supplementation at a level of 50 g/kg diet is useful to minimize the adverse effects of high density for enhancing the production performance of Nile tilapia, O. niloticus.

Keywords:
Nile tilapia – zeolite – stocking density – growth performance – feed utilization – carcass composition.

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