Millet perls inclusion on feeding of Nile tilapia fingerlings on the basis of digestible protein and energy

It was evaluated the inclusion of millet perls in rations with 30% of digestible protein and 3,000 kcal/kg of digestible energy for Nile tilapia fingerlings. The experiment was carried out in complete randomized design with five rations (0.00; 7.00; 14.00; 21.00 and 28.00% millet perls inclusion), each one with five replicates. It was used 200 sexual reverted Thai lineage Nile tilapia fingerlings, at 0.92 g of initial weight and 35 days of age, distributed in 25 tanks (150 L). Weight gain, apparent feed conversion, survival rate, hepatic-somatic rate, carcass yield and carcass fat percentage were evaluated. The performance of the fingerlings did not differ among rations, indicating that levels of energy did not influence the characteristics of performance. Millet pearls can be used in feeds for Nile tilapia fingerlings totally replacing energy and protein of corn without effect on performance and carcass quality of the animals.