Optimization of fishmeal, fish oil and wheat in diets for juvenile sablefish,Anoplopoma fimbria

Abstract

Sablefish Anoplopoma fimbria is a piscivorous fish that is highly desirable as food. To ascertain the relationship of dietary protein, lipid and carbohydrate, eleven diets containing fishmeal, fish oil and wheat flour as test ingredients at different levels were formulated. The levels were chosen according to mixture experiment methodology, which varies the proportion of each test ingredient, while keeping their sum constant across all diets. The range of levels used in the test diets were as follows: fishmeal 430–600 g kg−1, fish oil 100–270 g kg−1 and wheat flour 30–200 g kg−1. The sum of the test ingredients accounted for 900 g kg−1 of all diets, with the remaining 100 g kg−1 accounting for mineral and vitamin premix, binders, attractant, etc. Each diet, plus a commercial feed, was fed to three tanks of juvenile sablefish by hand twice daily for 11 weeks, using a completely random design. It was found that growth and feed efficiency were maximized by the highest dietary inclusion level of fish oil and fishmeal, corresponding to the lowest wheat flour level, that is 600 g kg−1 fishmeal, 270 g kg−1 fish oil and 30 g kg−1 wheat flour.