Silkworm caterpillar - soybean meal blend as dietary protein source in the practical diets of <i>Heterobranchus bidorsalis</i> fingerlings

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the utilization of silkworm caterpillar meat (SCM) blended with soybean meal (SBM) as a dietary protein source in the practical diet of Heterobranchus bidorsalis fingerlings (M±SE=17.04±_0.02g). The fish were fed five isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets containing blends of SCM and SBM in ratios of 25:75, 50:50, 75:25, and reference diets containing 100:00 and 00:100 of SCM and SBM respectively for 8 weeks at 4% body weight per day. A trend of difference in nutrient utilization was observed as Diet 4 (100SCM:00SBM) recorded mean weight gain (MWG) of 35.39g and better specific growth rate, food conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio than any other diet. This was followed by Diet 3 (75SCM:25SBM) which gave MWG value of 28.71g. There was marked significant difference (P<0.05) in the MWG values among fishes fed the five diets. Also there was observed significant difference (P<0.05) in the ash, lipid and crude protein of the carcass of the experimental diets.

Key words: Silkworm, Soybean meal, Heterobranchus bidorsalis.