Effect of different dietary lipid sources on growth performance and nutrient utilization of + Nile tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ) fingerlings

Abstract

A feeding trial was carried out to investigate the use of plant oils in the feeding of Oreochromis niloticus fingerlings. Four iso-nitrogenous (30% crude protein) and iso-calorific (17 MJ kg-1 gross energy) diets including a fish oil control were formulated to contain 8%. A basal diet containing 100% FO was completely replaced by Soya oil, groundnut oil, and palm oil. A total of 120 O. niloticus fingerlings (1.20 ± 0.03 g, mean ± SE) were randomly allocated the diets after 7-day acclimation. There were 10 fish tank-1. Fish were hand-fed to apparent satiation twice for 63 days. The result obtained from the trial show that dietary supplementation of lipids significantly influenced growth performance and nutrient utilization of O. niloticus (P 0.05) in WG of fish fed FO, GO and PO diets was observed. The best weekly overall growth at the end of d 56 was in FO group; fish fed PO diet had the least WG, followed by GO. At d 63, WG of fish fed FO diets declined, while fish fed SO and PO diets showed a trend towards increase in growth. Result of ANOVA showed that there were significant differences (P 0.05) in mean values of FW (P= 0.781), WG (P=0.999), SGR (P=0.991), PER (P=0.997), and FCR (P=0.879) between FO and SO-supplemented diets. The least WG was observed in fish fed PO diet followed by GO. Survival was 100% for all treatments. Whole body moisture and crude protein was least in PO group. FO had the highest (P 0.05). SO had the highest (P<0.5) lipid compared to FO, GO and PO. In conclusion, SO alone and a bend of PO and GO can be used as a alternative to FO without affecting growth performance of O. niloticus