Effects of Replacing Fish Meal with Peanut Meal (Arachis hypogaea) on Growth, Feed Utilization and Body Composition of Mozambique Tilapia Fries (Oreochromis mossambicus)

Abstract

The study was to determine the effects of diets replacing fish meal (FM) with peanut meal (PNM) on feed utilization, growth performance and body composition of Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus, initial body weight 0.83+/-0.17 g). Five isonitrogenous (37% CP) and isolipidic (9% CL) experimental diets with 0% (PNM-0), 10% (PNM-10), 20% (PNM-20), 30% (PNM-30) and 40% (PNM-40) of fish meal replaced with PNM. At the end of a 45 day feeding trial, PNM-10 and PNM-20 diets showed the best growth performance and feed evaluation. Higher dietary FM replacement negatively affected growth performance and feed evaluation. Our results at the end of the experiment showed that the replacement of FM by PNM in Mozambique tilapia diets does not affect body composition. In conclusion, these results indicate that the replacement of 20% dietary FM with PNM had no adverse effect on the growth performance, body composition parameters and general health of Mozambique tilapia fries (mean weight 0.8-3 g).