Effects of Dietary Protein and Lipid Levels on Growth and Body Composition of Juvenile Japanese Flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus, Fed Diets Containing Intact Proteins or Crystalline Amino Acids

Abstract

The influence of eight semi-purified diets having different protein and lipid levels on growth performance and body composition of Japanese flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus, was evaluated. The sources of protein were either intact protein (IP) or a mixture of IP and crystalline amino acids (CAA). In trial 1 (IP group), four test diets were prepared from IP sources (casein-gelatin) with combination of two protein levels (35% and 50%) and two lipid levels (10% and 20%). In trial 2 (PA-group), another four test diets were formulated using IP and CAA with combination of the same two protein and two lipid levels as used for trial 1. The juveniles (about 2.00 g initial weight) were fed the respective test diets for 42 days in duplicate tanks. In both trials, weight gain was the highest for juveniles fed the diet containing 50% protein with 10% lipid and the lowest in those fed the 35% protein with 10% lipid diet. Weight gain of juveniles was significantly increased when the lipid levels were increased in low protein (35%) diets for both trials. In high protein (50%) diet, however, increase lipid levels from 10 to 20% with 50% protein resulted in decrease in weight gain, irrespective of protein sources. Specific growth rate, feed intake, feed conversion efficiency were significantly affected by different dietary protein and lipid level. Content of neutral lipids in the whole-body particularly, triglycerides was statistically higher for fish fed the high-lipid diets than those fed the low-lipid diets irrespective of protein sources. But, polar lipid did not show any differences either for different protein or lipid levels. Level of individual amino acids in the whole-body showed little difference among the dietary treatments. Results suggest that Japanese flounder grew better on low lipid level with 50% protein-based diets and supplementation of CAA did not show any adverse effect on the growth performance with different levels of protein and lipid in the diets.