Effects of Replacing Fish Meal with Rubber Seed Cake on Growth, Digestive, Antioxidant and Protein Metabolism of Juvenile Asian Red-Tailed Catfish (Hemibagrus wyckioides)

An 8-week feeding trial was conducted to assess the impact of replacing fish meal (FM) with rubber seed cake (RSC) on growth performance, digestive enzyme activity of the gut, antioxidant capacity and protein metabolism-related parameters of plasma and liver in juvenile Asian red-tailed catfish (<i>Hemibagrus wyckioides</i>) with an average body weight of 3.21 g. Four isonitrogenous (41.08 ± 0.17) and isolipidic (10.07 ± 0.11) diets were formulated, incorporating RSC at a level of 0%, 15%, 30%, and 45% (<i>w</i>/<i>w</i>) to progressively replace FM. Dietary inclusion of 15-30% RSC did not significantly affect growth performance (<i>p</i> > 0.05). However, the replacement of FM with RSC resulted in linear reductions in intestinal trypsin and amylase activities, with a significant reduction in intestinal amylase activity observed at the 45% RSC inclusion level. Dietary inclusion of 30-45% RSC decreased plasma glutamate dehydrogenase and aspartate aminotransferase activities, but increased plasma adenosine monophosphate deaminase and hepatic γ-glutamyltransferase activities. This may indicate that the high substitution of FM by RSC may affect the homeostasis of amino acid metabolism. Dietary inclusion of 15% RSC did not affect serum and hepatic antioxidant enzyme activities; however, dietary inclusion of 45% RSC significantly increased plasma malondialdehyde level, but decreased catalase activity. Furthermore, dietary inclusion of 30-45% RSC significantly increased hepatic lactate dehydrogenase activity. These results demonstrated that replacing a portion of FM with RSC is feasible, and dietary inclusion of 15% RSC did not have significant adverse effects on growth performance, digestive function and antioxidant capacity of <i>H. wyckioides</i>.