Comparison of net fish yields in pond cultured Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus L.) fed on peanut-based meals as alternatives to dietary fishmeal
![Thumbnail](/bitstream/handle/123456789/4477/Musita21.pdf.jpg?sequence=4&isAllowed=y)
View/ Open
Publication Date
2021Author
J Balirwa, E Ogello, A Otieno, A Musita
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract/ Overview
Although net yield directly relates to actual production at harvest, feeding trials aimed at replacing
dietary fishmeal in cultured fish have largely ignored the performance indicator. A 16-week experiment
aimed at comparing Net Fish Yields in Nile tilapia fed on peanut-based meals as alternatives to dietary
fishmeal took place at Busoga University farmland in Eastern Uganda. Earthen ponds of size 4.0 x 3.0
x1.0 for length, width and depth respectively were used for culturing the experimental fish. Each of the
16 pond units were stocked at a density of 48 Nile tilapia fingerlings of initial live weight of 21.95 grams.
Iso-nitrogenous diets containing 30% and 25% Crude Protein (CP) for the first 12 and last four weeks
respectively, were used during the trial. Dietary treatments included the fishmeal (FM)-based diet and
two peanut-based diets. The latter consisted of peanut meal (PNM)-based diet and mixed plant meal
(MPM)-based diet in a ratio of 50:50. The commercial feed (CF) for grow-out Nile tilapia containing
25% CP acted as a control diet. NFYs of 5668 and 5624 kilograms per pond unit for Nile tilapia fed on
the MPM and FM-based diets respectively, showed no significant difference (p0.05). On the contrary,
NFY of 4819 kilograms characteristic to the PNM-based diet was the lowest and significantly poorer
(p<0.05) than the two test diets. Basing on the comparable NFYs, the MPM-based meal should substitute
the conventional fishmeal in the diet of pond cultured Nile tilapia.