Replacement of fishmeal by house cricket (Acheta domesticus) and field cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus) meals: Effect for growth, pigmentation, and breeding performances of guppy (Poecilia reticulata)

Abstract

Insect meal is a promising alternative to unsustainable fishmeal. However, limited studies have been focused on identifying the fishmeal replacement potential related to ornamental fish compared with food fish. Therefore, an experiment was conducted using house cricket (Acheta domesticus) and field cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus) meals to test the growth and pigmentation performances of Guppy (Poecilia reticulata). The protein content of the fish meal in the control diet was replaced by 50%, 75%, and 100% by both cricket meals. One-day-old fry of all the treatments were initially fed by Artemia nauplii for five days; then, the research diets were fed from day six to day thirty thrice a day ad libitum by the respective research diets. The growth performance of all the treatments was significantly similar (p > 0.05) to each other and the control. Therefore, the results confirmed that both insect meals could replace fishmeal by 100% without any adverse effects on the growth of the nursery phase of P. reticulata. Furthermore, sorted and further reared fry were tested for breeding performance, and the results showed that both insect meals did not affect negatively (P > 0.05) the delivered fry number and its weight and length. The total carotenoid concentration and MATLAB analysis of the photographed caudal fins of A. domesticus meal-fed fish showed that all the inclusion levels of the insect meal did not affect (P > 0.05) pigmentation with the control. However, the diet that the field cricket meal included diet-fed fish replaced 100% fishmeal showed statistically higher (P < 0.05) color intensity than the control. Pigmentation is a crucial factor for ornamental fish in marketing. Therefore, the field cricket meal is more suitable than house cricket for P. reticulata feed.