Optimal dietary methionine requirement of juvenile Chinese sucker, Myxocyprinus asiaticus

A total of 630 juvenile Chinese sucker, with an average initial weight of 1.72 +/- 0.05g, were fed seven diets for 56days to study the effect of dietary methionine levels on growth, feed utilization, body composition and haematological parameters on juvenile Chinese sucker. Diet 1 using fish meal as the sole protein source and diets 2-7 using fish meal and fermented soybean meal as intact protein sources supplemented with crystalline amino acids contained six levels of l-methionine ranging from 6.4 to 18.9gkg(-1) of dry diet at a constant dietary cystine level of 3.7gkg(-1). Each diet was randomly assigned to three aquaria. Results indicated that the highest weight gain, specific growth rate (SGR), feed efficiency ratio, protein efficiency ratio and protein productive value occurred at 13.9gmethioninekg(-1) diet among the methionine supplemented dietary groups, beyond which they showed declining tendency. The whole body and muscle protein contents of juvenile Chinese sucker were positively correlated with dietary methionine level, while muscle lipid content was negatively correlated with it. The total essential amino acids content of muscle was increased significantly with increasing dietary methionine level from 6.4 to 13.9gkg(-1) (P<0.05). Apparent digestibility coefficients of dietary protein were significantly affected by dietary treatments. Serum protein, cholesterol and triacylglycerol increased with increasing dietary methionine levels, but showed a relatively lower value for fish fed the 18.9gmethioninekg(-1) diet. Quadratic regression analysis of SGR against dietary methionine level indicated that optimal dietary methionine requirement for juvenile Chinese sucker was 14.1gkg(-1) of the diet in the presence of 3.7gkg(-1) cystine (corresponding to 32.0gkg(-1) of dietary protein on a dry-weight basis).