Replacement of Fishmeal by Three Cricket Meals (Acheta domesticus, Gryllus bimaculatus, Teleogryllus mitratus) in Swordtail (Xiphophorus helleri) Fry Feed: Effect of Growth, Stress Tolerance, Pigmentation and Histopathological Alterations

Fishmeal (FM) has become one of the significant determinants of aquaculture due to its higher nutritional quality attributes. However, unsustainability, food security issues and soaring prices force the aqua feed industry to find alternatives to FM. Insect meals are becoming a sustainable alternative to FM due to their comparable nutritional content and environmental friendliness. A ten-week experiment was performed using the red velvet strain of swordtail (SF) (Xiphophorus helleri) fry. Twelve fiberglass tanks with four treatments and three replicates were used, placing fifteen fish in each tank. FM of the control (FM100) was replaced by house cricket (Acheta domesticus) meal (HC100), field cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus) meal (FC100), and ground cricket (Teleogryllus mitratus) meal (GC100). The growth performance and stress tolerance were measured at the end of the experiment. Further, color intensity and hepatic cells were analyzed. Results confirmed that the applicable three cricket meals can replace FM without affecting growth performances, pigmentation, and stress tolerance (P˂0.05). In contrast, the alternations can be observed in all the treatments in liver cells. Thus, all the researched cricket meals are suitable to replace FM in SF fry diets. However, further research is required to minimize the damage to the hepatic cells.