Emerging Animal Protein Source to Replace Fish Meal in the Diets of Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) Fry

A 60 days feeding trial was performed to assess the potential use of shrimp head meal (SHM) as complete replacement of fish meal (FM) in commercial diets of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fry.Quadruple groups were fed each of five isonitrogenous (40%) diets were formulated to contain graded levels of SHM at 0% (control diet, T1), 25% (T2), 50% (T3), 75% (T4) and 100% (T5), respectively. Total 200 numbers of tilapia fry (mean initial weight ± SE, 1.56±0.1g) were stocked into 40 L aquarium tanks (10 fish in each tank) and fed experimental diets ad libitum during feeding trial. After 60 days, diet T3 showed significantly (p<0.05) higher weight gain (354.84±3.32), protein efficiency ratio (1.64±0.02) and higher feed efficiency (65.67±0.81) as compared to control and other treatment diets. Thus, it can be concluded from the study that SHM is a potential protein source and can be used to substitute fish meal up to 50% in the diets of tilapia (O. niloticus) fry and the optimal level of fish meal replacement with SHM was determined by quadratic regression analysis to be in between 43.83 and 50.29% on the basis of higher weight gain and maximum protein efficiency ratio.