An investigation of the effects of differing protein levels on growth indices WG, RGR, FCR, FCE and PER in cultured crayfish (Astacus leptodactylus)

Knowledge of nutritional requirements and especially protein levels is needed to produce strong and larger freshwater crayfish in controlled conditions. This has not been available for the miniature size crayfish culture. Hence, an eight-week experiment was conducted on miniature size crayfish in three treatment groups each with three replicates receiving a diet that contained 25%, 30 % and 35143 protein levels with isocaloric digestible energy (DE) 3500 kcal/kg. A number of 540 miniature crayfish with a mean weight 100± I 2mg were randomly selected and partitioned into nine tanks containing 200 liters of freshwater 70% of which exchanged daily. The fish were fed at 25% of body weight five times daily at 6, 10, 14, 18 and 22 hours using pellets 0.1, 0.2 and 0.4 mm. Nutritional responses in term of weigh gain, PGR, FCR, FCE and PER were compared among the groups using one-way ANOVA. The test showed a significant increase in the indices such as WG and PER in response to increased protein level (P<0.05). FCR, FCE and PGR show a significant increase using 20% protein level while using 30 and 35% protein levels did not produce significant results (P<0.05). The test revealed a significant difference between treatments 1 and 3 (P<0.05) but not between 1 and 2. 1 conclude that the treatment 3 produces more reliable results

Effect of dietary digestible energy level on growth indices of kutum (Rutilus frisii kutum Kamenskii, 1901)

A 60-days feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary digestible energy levels (DE) on kutum, Rutilus frisii kutum. Four isonitrogenous (35% protein) diets with digestible energy levels of 2500, 2600, 2700 and 2800kcal kg-1 were tested. Two hundred and forty advanced fry (2±0.4g) were randomly distributed in 12 fiberglass tanks of 400L capacity. Nutritional responses in terms of WG, FCR and PER as well as survival rate (SR) significantly improved (P<0.05) with increase in DE level from 2500 to 2800 kcal kg-1 diet, but no difference between 2600 and 2700kcal kg-1 diet was found. Body crude protein and fat significant were increased (p<0.05) when the dietary energy was raised up from 2500 to 2600kcal DE kg-1 diet, but a further increase on energy did not improve the fish crude protein and fat content