The Effect of Replacement Fish Meal with Earthworm Meal and Maggot Meal in Feed on Protein Digestion, Growth and Survival Rate of Catfish (Pangasius hypophthalmus)

The purpose of this study was to examine the replacement of fish meal with earthworm meal and maggot meal in feed on protein digestibility, growth and survival rate of catfish (Pangasius hypophthalmus).The experimental fish used were catfish (P. hypophthalmus) with an average weight of 2.53± 0.12 g. This study used experimental method with a Completely Randomized Design (CRD), 5 treatments, and 3 replicates. The treatments in this study were replacement for fish meal with earthworm meal and maggot meal and with different ratios, namely treatment A (ratio 0:0), treatment B (ratio 2:2), treatment C (ratio 2:4), treatment D (ratio 2:6) and treatment E (ratio 2:8). The variables observed included digestibility for protein (ADCp), feed utilization efficiency (EFU), protein efficiency ratio (PER), feed conversion ratio (FCR), relative growth rate (RGR) and survival rate (SR). The results showed that the replacement of fish meal with earthworm meal and maggot meal as a source of animal protein in feed had a significant effect (P<0.05) on ADCp, EFU, PER, FCR, RGR but had no significant effect (P>0.05) on the survival rate of catfish. The best ratio of fish meal replacement with earthworm meal and maggot meal in catfish (P. hypophthalmus) feed was a ratio of 2:2 (treatment B) the feed was able to produced EFU of 70.78 ± 0.21%, PER of 1.87 ± 0.01, RGR of 4.72 ± 0.16 and FCR of 1.27 ± 0.02.