Impact of Various Dietary Protein Sources on Growth Performance of Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) Fingerlings and on Water Quality

Aquaculture industry provides proteins and unsaturated fatty acids worldwide. Fresh water aquaculture is considered as the most prominent type of aquaculture in the world. Nile tilapia aquaculture is favored because it can adopt to wide range of environments and can tolerate various abiotic stresses. However, the success and profitability of aquaculture is significantly affected by type of feeds used in aquaculture system. An experiment was conducted to assess this important aspect of aquaculture. Nile tilapia fingerlings were fed on three different protein sources to assess the effects of these experimental diets on growth of fingerlings and on water quality. Three protein sources were freshwater shrimp meal (FSM), black soldier fly larvae (BSF) and soybean meal (SBM). Fingerlings were divided into groups based on their respective experimental diets and were arranged according to CRD with three replicates. Each replicate contained 30 fingerlings. Data was recorded for growth attributes of fingerlings and for water quality attributes. Analysis of data shows that BSF caused 32% increase in final weight of fingerlings followed by FSM, which caused 24% increase as compared to controlled. Net weight gain was also significantly enhanced by experimental diets. BSF caused 88% increase in weight gain as compared to controlled. BSF also increased 43% survival rate of Nile tilapia fingerlings as compared to fingerlings fed with controlled diet. Water quality was not much affected by all diets. Water quality parameters like DO, pH, temperature, ammonia and phosphorus all were in optimum range for tilapia culture. However, BSF provided 136% more phosphorus as compared to controlled. This study reveals the beneficial effects of BSF larvae protein source for Nile tilapia culture. So, from these findings, it can be suggested to partially replace fish meal with BSF larvae meal.