Replacement of fishmeal with soybean meal for the diet of seabass, Lates calcarifer

Fishmeal is one of the essential raw materials in the fish diet, and this material is expensive and rarely available in the rural area. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the possibility to replace the fishmeal with the soybean meal in the diet of Asian seabassLatescalcarifer. The study was conducted from November 2018 to January 2019 at Center for Brackish Water Aquaculture in Ujung Batee, Aceh Besar District, Indonesia. The completely randomized experimental design method was used in this study with six treatments and four replications. The tested treatment was the replacement proportion of fish meal with the soybean meal in the diet, namely: 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100%. The experimental fish were stocked at one fish per liter of seawater. The fish were fed on the experimental diet at feeding level of 10% body weight two times a day. The results showed that the proportion of the soybean meal in the diet gave the significant effect on the weight gain, specific growth rate, feeding conversion ratio and feed efficiency (P<0.05), but did not provide the considerable impact on the survival rate (P>0.05). In conclusion that approximately 40% of the fish meal can be replaced with soybean meal for Asian seabass diet.