Utilization of wastewater‐grown zooplankton: Nutritional quality of zooplankton and performance of silver perch Bidyanus bidyanus (Mitchell 1838) (Teraponidae) fed on wastewater‐grown zooplankton

Zooplankton grow in the last stage of water purification at the Werribee Sewage Treatment Lagoons (WSTL) and the resource is huge and unutilized. Daphnia carinata and Moina australiensis are the dominant species at the WSTL. The protein content of D. carinata and M. australiensis was 54.80% and 64.80%, respectively. Analysis of zooplankton showed that both essential and nonessential amino acids were present at a level that was higher than control diet. Silver perch fed on D. carinata exhibited better growth, better food conversion ratio (FCR), protein efficiency ratio (PER) and apparent net protein utilization (ANPU), which were not significantly different from the control diet (P > 0.05). Heavy metals concentrations were at very low levels in fish fed on wastewater-grown zooplankton.