Abstract
A 3-month randomized factorial design 4x2 (four levels of Date stone (DS) (0, 15, 30, and 45%), two levels (0 and 0.03%) of Marjoram (M) and three replicates). The trial was conducted in twenty four glass aquaria. Ten fingerlings of Nile tilapia were placed in each aquarium with an average weight 15.40 ± 0.3 g fish. Fish were fed twice daily (six days a week) at a rate of 3% of body weight. The results revealed that, mean final weight (g/fish), SGR (% /day), feed conversion ratio, PPV and PER, were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) affected by the levels of DS and level of M. And the best diet achieved which contain 15% DS and supplemented with 0.03 % M was not significantly different from control diet in fish performance. From the above results and the economic information of these study it can be concluded that, diet containing 15% of DS with 0.03% M exhibited the highest net profit and would seem to be the most desirable level of DS and M in the system studied.
Highlights
Annual production of date stone in Egypt is about 1.1 million tons representing 16% of total world production (FAO, 2004)
There were no significant differences in water quality parameter among the treatments during experimental period
15% of corn meal (CM) energy could be replaced by Date stone (DS), and result in growth rates in Nile tilapia higher than a CM- based diet
Summary
Annual production of date stone in Egypt is about 1.1 million tons representing 16% of total world production (FAO, 2004). 10-15% of this amount represents the total possible crop of date stone (110000-165000 tons annually). This amount was not all available, only those from manufactured date can be collected. On the other hand El-Sayed et al (2006) found that date pits based diets replaced with up to 75% wheat bran resulted in reduced growth rates and feed utilization efficiency of Nile tilapia. While Belal (2008) found that, growth performance of Nile tilapia fed sprouted date pits diets are not different from control diet. This study was carried out to determine the feasibility of using date stone as energy source for replacement corn meal in practical diets supplemented with 0.03% Digestarom on Nile tilapia fingerlings
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