Effect of stocking density and diet composition on growth performance and feed utilization of monosex nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fingerlings [electronic resource].

Includes references.

In 2x2 factorial designs, two different stocking densities of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (2.5 and 4.5 g total biomass/L) were combined with two different diets (commercial or formulated) containing 25% crude protein to obtain 4 experimental treatments. The experimental treatments (T1, 12, nand T4) were subjected to be studied as the follOWing: - T1 (commercial diet + 2.5 g/L stocking density), T2 (formulated diet + 2.5 g/L stocking density), n (commercial diet + 4.5 g/L stocking density) and 14 (formulated diet + 4.5 g/L stocking density). Fish were daily fed at a rate 3% of their biomass for 63 days. There were significant differences in AWG, ADG and SGR among treatments. The second treatment (T2) recorded the highest values for the above parameters, while the lowest level of these values were observed with n. Feed conversion ratio (FCR), protein efficiency ratio (PER), protein productive value (PPV %) and energy utilization (EU %) were significantly affected by the experimental treatments. The formulated diet at the lowest stocking density recorded the best values of feed and protein utilization. Body dry matter (%) was not significantly affected by the experimental treatments, while CP%, EE% and ash% significantly differed among treatments. The formulated diet at the lower density recorded the highest CP and EE contents. The best economic efficiency (expressed as feed cost/Kg weight gain) was observed in T2, while the lowest efficiency was recorded for T3

Summary in Arabic.

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