Replacement of Dietary Fish Meal with Poultry By-product Meal and Soybean Meal for Golden Pompano, Trachinotus ovatus, Reared in Net Pens

Two 8-wk feeding trials were conducted to examine the effect of replacing dietary fish meal with poultry by-product meal (PBM) and soybean meal (SBM) on growth, feed utilization, body composition, and wastes output of juvenile golden pompano, Trachinotus ovatus (initial body weight 16.7 g), reared in net pens. A control diet (C) was formulated to contain 35% fish meal. In Trial I, dietary fish meal level was reduced to 21, 14, 7, and 0% by replacing 40, 60, 80, and 100% of the fish meal in diet C with PBM. The weight gain (WG), nitrogen retention efficiency (NRE), and energy retention efficiency (ERE) decreased, while the feed conversion ratio (FCR) and total waste output of nitrogen (TNW) increased, with the fish meal level reducing from 35 to 21%. No significant differences were found in the hepatosomatic index, viscersomatic index, and body composition between fish fed diet C and test diets. In Trial II, a 2 x 2 layout was established, and 40 and 60% of the fish meal in diet C was replaced by either PBM or SBM. At the same fish meal replacement level, the WG and NRE were higher and the FCR and TNW were lower in fish fed the diets with fish meal replaced by PBM than in fish fed the diets with fish meal replaced by SBM. The results of this study indicate that more than 21% fish meal must be retained in diets for golden pompano when PBM or SBM is used alone as a fish meal substitute.