Short communicationProtein sparing effect of carbohydrates in the diet of Cirrhinus mrigala (Hamilton, 1822) fry
Introduction
Successful and sustainable aquaculture of finfishes and crustaceans depends upon the provision of nutritionally balanced, environment friendly and economically viable artificial feeds. Protein is the indispensable nutrient required to build and repair damaged tissues and for general body maintenance. It is an important and the most expensive component in the diet. The optimum use of protein for promotion of growth is essential so as to make aquaculture commercially viable and also to prevent organic load in the ecosystem, which ultimately leads to pollution. It is reported that adequate levels of non-protein energy sources (lipid and carbohydrate) in the diet can minimize catabolism of protein (Cho and Kaushik, 1990). As compared to lipid, the use of carbohydrate as a protein-sparing energy source in fishes has received less attention (Watanabe et al., 1987). Carbohydrate yields almost same energy as that of protein as it is utilised for routine metabolism and day-to-day energy requirements. The carbohydrate levels and sources are reported to affect fish growth (Tung and Shiau, 1991, Tung and Shiau, 1993). Wilson (1994) has extensively reviewed the dietary carbohydrate utilization in fishes.
The present study was conducted to evaluate the protein-sparing effect of carbohydrates in the diet of Cirrhinus mrigala fry by using various levels of dietary carbohydrate sources (glucose, sucrose and dextrin) at different protein levels. C. mrigala was selected for this study because of its herbivorous feeding habit and aquacultural importance in Asian countries.
Section snippets
Diet preparation
Experimental diets were prepared using different sources of carbohydrates (glucose, sucrose and dextrin). Nine iso-energetic (4.35 kcal/g) diets were prepared with three levels of protein (40%, 35% and 30%). At each protein level, three levels of carbohydrates (30%, 35% and 40%) were incorporated in the feed. The composition and proximate analysis of experimental diets are shown in Table 1. The vitamin and mineral premixes used were according to Halver (1976). The diets were prepared by
Results
The food conversion ratio and growth efficiency data for C. mrigala fry are shown in Table 2. Mortality was not observed and the fish appeared healthy throughout the experiment. The data indicated that the FCR (1.28 ± 0.45), weight gain (0.70 ± 0.04 g), percentage gain in weight (93.59 ± 2%), daily increment in weight (0.012 ± 0.003 g/day), SGR (2.20 ± 0.1) and protein efficiency ratio (2.60 ± 0.25) were significantly (P < 0.05) higher in the fish fed with dextrin-containing diet (30:40) as compared to the
Discussion
The pattern of protein-sparing effect of carbohydrate on the growth has been observed in the channel catfish (Garling and Wilson, 1976), rainbow trout (Pieper and Pfeffer, 1980) and European eel (Degani, 1987, Hidalgo et al., 1993). Decrease in dietary protein level from 28% to 24% and increase in starch or dextrin in the diet from 37% to 41% did not affect weight gain in tilapia, indicating that starch or dextrin can spare some protein when the dietary protein is low (Shiau and Peng, 1993).
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to the Associate Dean, Faculty of Fisheries, Dr. B.S. Konkan Agricultural University, Dapoli, India, for providing the facilities. Special thanks are due to the Dr. D.K. Garg, Officer-In-Charge and other staff of Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Vashi, New Mumbai, India, for helping in analysis of feed and body composition of the fish.
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