Dietary taurine in practical diet for two sizes of snubnose silver pompano, Trachinotus blochii

Abstract

Two separate feeding experiments determined taurine requirement levels in diets for growth of two sizes of snubnose silver pompano. The first experiment was conducted for 14 weeks using pompano with average weight of 0.4 ± 0.01 g. Experimental diets were isonitrogenic, isolipidic and isoenergetic. Inclusion of 0.346% taurine in diet served as control, while five diets were with graded taurine levels at 0.5 (0.846%), 1.0 (1.346%), 1.5 (1.846%), 2.0 (2.346%) and 2.5 (2.846%) %. Three hundred and sixty pompano fishes were randomly distributed to experimental tanks (250-L, 15 fish per tank) in quadruplicate. Pompano fed diets with 1.0% taurine had significantly higher (p < .05) specific growth rate, per cent body weight gain (PWG) and feed utilization efficiency. The second experiment was conducted for 17 weeks using 104 ± 1.82 g pompano. Similar treatments were used except for diets with 0.5% and 2.5% taurine. Fifteen pompano were stocked in floating net cages in triplicate. Quadratic regression analysis of PWG and taurine levels revealed that pompano weighing 0.4 g required 1.55 g taurine 100 g-1 diet (0.352 g taurine 100 g-1 protein) while larger-sized pompano weighing 104 g required 0.937 g taurine 100 g-1 diet (0.213 g taurine 100g-1 protein).