Proximate Composition of Fish Feed Ingredients Available in Lakshmipur Region, Bangladesh

3 Abstract: This study presents the availability of fish feed ingredients and their nutritive value in Lakshmipur region, southern Bangladesh considering the presence of large number of fish farms in those areas. A survey was conducted to collect the ingredients from the local markets and fish farms of the area. A range of commonly used feed ingredients for fish farming was available in the markets that include two types of fishmeal, different oilseed cakes, rice bran, rice polish, broken rice, beson, pulse, maize, wheat bran and wheat flour. All the common feed ingredients were found to be available throughout the year with exception of 'cheoa' type fishmeal which was produced from marine fish called cheoa fish. During the present study the protein percentage of the mustard oil cake, wheat bran, wheat flour and fish meal was estimated 35.17-37.25%, 14.84-15.40%, 14.15-17.73% and 51.32-65.34% respectively. The mean range of crude lipid was recorded as 10.73 to 15.52% in mustard oil cake, 4.09 to 9.71% in wheat bran, 2.94 to 4.57 % in wheat flour and 3.69 to 12.50% in fish meal. The analyzed ash contents of the samples of the fish feed ingredients collected from three areas were in the range of 14.79 to 18.84% in rice bran, 2.52 to 8.26% in wheat bran, 6.99 to 9.08 % in mustard oil cake, 2.5 to 3.64% in wheat flour and 15.16 to 34.14 % in fish meal. The feed ingredients viz. mustard oil cake, wheat bran, rice bran and wheat flour had no significant variations in their proximate composition in respect to place. The composition of the experimented ingredients indicated the crude protein to be the main component as the feed cost appears to be one of the major constraints against the greater expansion of fish farming. It is therefore imperative that the feed should substitute the animal protein with plant protein sources ingredients such as Soybean those are available and rich in protein level to reduce feed cost.