Potential Of Shrimp Meal As A Partial Substituent For Fishmeal In Diets Of Catla Catla(Hamilton)Fingerlings.

Abstract- Feeding management plays a critical role in the success of fish culture. The current trend in fish culture is towards increased intensification whereby, provision of feeds becomes necessary and success depends significantly on the availability of well balanced nutritionally complete and cost effective compounded feeds. A global increase in shrimp farming and processing has led to the mass production of shrimp waste. SW comprises of discarded heads, appendages and exoskeletons of prawns, which is partially converted to shrimp meal for use as animal feedstuff. Generally, sundrying or cooking followed by coarse milling are the most common methods of preparing the shrimp meal.

The present study was conducted in indoor cement tanks to evaluate the replacement of fish meal by low cost shrimp meal in supplementary feeds for fingerlings of Catla catla. Four isonitrogenous (35±0.2 % ) diets were formulated for this study. One fish meal based reference diet and other three experimental diets were prepared by progressively replacement of fishmeal by shrimp meal at an inclusion level of 0%, 5 % , 10 % , 15 % ; it referred as T0, T1 , T2, &T3 respectively.

Completely randomised block design was employed for the study. Each treatment was done in triplicate. Stocking was done @10 fish / tank. Feeding was done at the rate of 5% of wet fish body weight daily throughout the period of study. The water quality was maintained throughout the culture period by periodic partial replenishment. Sampling of each treatment tank were done at fortnightly intervals to evaluate the growth performance of the fish and test diets on the basis of obtained length and weight. The quanity of feed given was readjusted after each sampling. On termination of the experiment, fish samples from each treatment tank were collected for analysis of carcass composition.

Statistical analysis of growth data employing ANOVA showed that there is significant difference between the four treatments at 5% level of significance. Survivals in all the treatments were 100%. Optimum performance in terms of weight gain, FCR, FCE, SGR and carcass body composition was observed in fish fed the diet with 15% inclusion level. Hence it conclude that the shrimp meal can be effectively replace 75% of fish meal from the supplementary diets of Catla catla fingerlings without compromising the growth and survival.