Effect of Partial Replacement of Fish Meal with ULVA LACTUCA and PADINA TETRASTROMATICA On Growth Performances of Etroplus Suratensis(Bloch) Fingerlings

Abstract- Seaweeds have been employed as fishmeal substituent in many studies on development of feeds for prawns and fishes. The growth and feed conversion ratio is a remarkable tool to compute the acceptability of formulated feed. In the present study, two seaweeds.viz.,Ulva lactuca and Padina tetrastromatica were incorporated at partial level in the diets of Pearlspot to evaluate the growth responses of the fish and its potential to utilize the feed, formulated at 5% of respective seaweeds in two individual diets ( Ulva 5%-T1 , Padina 5%-T2 ) and 2.5% of each seaweeds in a combined form making 5% of inclusion ( Ulva 2.5% & Padina 2.5% -) as T3 and Ulva 5% & Padina 5% of inclusion as T4 and control diet of 100% fishmeal feed as Control treatment C. Completely randomized block design was employed for the study conducted for 56 days in 250L cement tank with 10 fishes in each of tank. The growth parameters, such as weight gain, specific growth rate and protein efficiency were best observed for T4 followed by T3. On the other hand, food conversion ratio was better for T2 and survival was favorable to control diets of C. The results showed that the combination diet of seaweeds (T4 and T3) obtained highest growth in Pearlspot without affecting the survival to a greater extent, whereas the individual diets ( T1) & ( T2 ) showed lesser growth in comparison and therefore, suggested that fish meal in Etroplus suratensis diet can be replaced upto 5% with seaweed protein source from Ulva lactuca and Padina tetrastromatica using a combination of 2.5-5% each of seaweeds without compromising the growth of the fishes which could be not just economical but environmentally safe too.