Abdurrazzaq Ibrahim Abdullahi

Department of Fisheries, University of Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Aquaculture, 2023, Vol. 13, No. 4   doi: 10.5376/ija.2023.13.0004
Received: 27 Mar., 2023    Accepted: 20 May, 2023    Published: 31 May, 2023

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abdullahi A.I., 2023, Apparent digestibility coefficient and carcass composition of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fed processed duckweed (Lemna paucicostata) meals, International Journal of Aquaculture, 13(4): 1-6 (doi: 10.5376/ija.2023.13.0004)

This study evaluated the apparent digestibility coefficient of processed duckweed based diets and its effect on carcass composition of Oreochromis niloticus. Blanching and sun-drying were employed as the processing methods to reduce antinutrients in the duckweed meal. The experiment was conducted in two outdoor concrete ponds with an area of 5 m x 3.5 m (l × b) and a depth of 1.5 m each, using 27 Hapa nets measuring 1 m² each. Nine iso-proteinous diets (D₁-D₉) were formulated using least-cost feed formulation software. Soybean meal was replaced by blanched and sun-dried duckweed meal at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% each. A total of 10 fingerlings of O. niloticus (7.46 ± 0.06 g) were stocked per Hapa and fed three times a day at 5% biomass for 24 weeks. Highest apparent protein digestibility coefficient of 92.94% was recorded in the diet containing 75% blanched duckweed meal (D₄) while the least value of 86.86% was obtained in the diet with 100% blanched duckweed meal (D₅). The fish fed 75% blanched duckweed meal (D₄) gave significantly highest (P≤0.05) carcass protein of 60.80% followed by D₆ (25% sun-dried duckweed meal) and D₃ (50% blanched duckweed meal) which had similar values of 60.07% and 60.04%, respectively while significantly least value of 44.73% was recorded in the initial carcass protein. The dietary apparent digestibility coefficients obtained in this study suggest that all the blanched and sun-dried duckweed meal can be used to replace soybean meal in Oreochromis niloticus diet without any reduction in protein digestibility and carcass protein contents.

Apparent digestibility; Carcass composition; Duckweed; Lemna paucicostata; Nile tilapia;Oreochromis niloticus