Juvenile silver perch were grown for 65 days in 10 000-l tanks, using one of five diets with similar digestible nitrogen, energy, and dry matter but different contents of fish meal, lamb meal,
and Provine
w
. Fish growth was reduced when diets contained less than 13 fish meal and more
w
Ž .
than 9 Provine . However, feed conversion efficiency and protein retention efficiency PRE were unaffected by diet formulation. These results indicate that meat meal can replace most of the
fish meal in silver perch diets without reducing fish performance. q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Bidyanus bidyanus; Digestibility; Nutrient availability; Growth; Meat meal
1. Introduction
Fish meal replacement in aquaculture diets is recognised as a major international Ž
. research priority Manzi, 1989; New, 1991; Tacon, 1994 and many dietary development
Ž studies using different species and ingredients have already been conducted Tacon,
. 1994 . The majority have investigated the potential of soybean products to replace fish
Ž meal because of the excellent amino acid profile of soybeans see review by Tacon,
. 1994 . Other studies have investigated a range of different products including rapeseed
Ž .
meal, cottonseed meal Tacon, 1994 , mustard oil cake, linseed and sesame meals Ž
. Ž
Hossain and Jauncey, 1989a,b , and other less common vegetable proteins Tacon, .
1994 . Ž
Previous studies with meat meal products Lovell, 1992; Shimeno et al., 1993a,b, .
1996; Tacon, 1994 have been generally positive with respect to fish meal replacement. In Australia, meat meal and meat products may have potential to replace significant
Ž .
quantities of fish meal in aquaculture feeds Allan, 1997 . On a cost per unit protein basis, meat meal is an attractive protein source for most farmed finfish and aquatic
invertebrates. Well-rendered meat meal has few anti-nutrients and does not contain significant quantities of indigestible carbohydrates, which can restrict the use of plant
protein sources.
In Australia, meat meal is in good supply with 480 000 t of meat meal produced in Ž
. 1991–1992 Australasian Agribusiness Services, 1993 and 475 000 t produced for
Ž 1995–1996 Personal communication, Graeme Banks, Australian Renderers Association,
. 1998 .
Silver perch is an omnivorous, native Australian freshwater finfish currently being Ž
cultured in static ponds in Australia Rowland and Barlow, 1991; Rowland et al., 1994, .
1995 . They readily accept pelleted diets, tolerate crowded conditions, and perform well Ž
. in earthen ponds with low net water exchange Rowland et al., 1994, 1995 .
Ž .
The aim of this study was to determine the apparent digestibility coefficients ADCs Ž
. for dry matter, energy, nitrogen and the apparent availability coefficients AACs for
essential amino acids for four different meat meals in diets for silver perch. These results were used to formulate five diets with similar digestible energy, protein and available
essential amino acids profiles but where fish meal was progressively replaced by a combination of beef and lamb meal and Provine
w
. Performance and composition of fish fed these five diets for 65 days were measured.
2. Materials and methods
