Growth performance of giant gourami (Osphronemus gouramy) fed with combination of fish meal and azolla flour (Azolla microphylla

Abstract

Giant gourami has a high economic value, but slow growth. To overcome this problem, it is necessary to improve the quality of feed and the cultivation system. Feed used in this experiment was formulated feed with different ratio of combination of fish meal and azolla fermented flour. The cultivation system used in this study was a recirculation system. This study aimed to determine the effect of different ratio of matterials combination in feed on the growth performance of gouramy. This study used an experimental method with the completely randomized design with 5 treatments and 3 replicate. The treatments were the ratio of combination between fish meal and azolla fermented flour, viz: A (100:0%), B (75:25%), C (50:50%), D (25:75%) and E (0:100%). The body size of fish ranged of 7 – 9 cm with an average weight of 8.8 g ind.-1. The results showed that the provision of artificial feed with different combinations gave a significant effect (P<0.05) on growth performance of gourami. The best results were obtained in treatment B with the value of specific growth rate of 0.52±0.01, absolute body weight of 2.06±0.05, feed consumption rate of 93.63±0.43, protein efficiency ratio of 6.39±0.16 and the feed convertion ratio was 1.00±0.25. The best protein retention was achieved in treatment B with the value 13%.