Biology and Growth Performance for Fry Red Tilapia Feed With Spirulina

Abstract

The use of fish feed with nutrient deficiency is common in present aquaculture practice and it causes the highest fish mortality and economic loss in this industry.

Microalgae (Spirulina) is known to have good nutritional and chemical compositions that are good for fish feed. An experimental study was carried out to determine the nutritional composition of Spirulina, the biology and growth performance of red tilapia when feed with different ratio of Spirulina. Twelve cages sizes 1x1x0.9m and built with netlon and polyvinyl chloride were used and arranged in concrete tanks to culture the fish. The fish feed was prepared with own grown spirulina. The fish was fed with different ratios (0%, 1%, 3%, 5%, and 7%) of Spirulina for 13 weeks. The results show that locally grown Spirulina are far better than those from other countries in performance. The 3% Spirulinar ration gave the best fish weight growth, total length, fish appearance and gonad weight. Thus, the locally grown Spirulina fish feed was found to be good for supplementation in fish feed with 3% given the overall growth performance to red tilapia and it is considered to be a potential candidate to replace the fish meal and feed formulation.