Growth and survival of spiny lobster, Panulirus homarus fed fresh food and formulated diet

To date, lobster aquaculture relies on fresh food for feeding; however, the availability of fresh food is limited and its excessive use causes environmental degradation. Therefore, formulated diet is required to establish sustainable lobster aquaculture. Concerning this issue, this study was carried out to assess the growth and survival of spiny lobster Panulirus homarus fed fresh food and formulated diet. The study was conducted in a completely randomized design (CRD) with 3 groups of treatments and 3 replicates for each treatment. Feeding experiment was performed in a flow-through water system using 9 fibre tanks, 4000 L in volume. Each tank was stocked with 40 lobsters, with initial weight of 78.08 ± 0.22 g. Each group of lobsters was fed with fresh food (A), formulated diet (pellet) (B) and a combination of pellet and fresh food (C). The fresh food was a mixture of fish, crabs, shrimp and small mussel (3:1:1:1). Feeding experiment was done for 15 weeks. Results of the experiment showed that the highest specific growth rate of lobster was obtained from lobsters fed with the combination of pellet and fresh food (0.52 ± 0.02 %/day) and the lowest growth was resulted from lobsters fed formulated diet (0.16 ± 0.03 %/day). In contrast, the highest survival was achieved in lobsters fed formulated diet (51.67%). Whereas the lowest survival was found in lobsters fed fresh food (10%). This study indicated that good growth of lobster was resulted from feeding with formulated diet combined with fresh food, while good survival was supported by feeding with formulated diet.

Evaluation of nutritional compositions and haematological effect of locally produced fish feeds in Heterobranchus Bidorsalis (catfish) Fingerings

Background: The Insufficient feed availability in the natural or artificial environment of fish has resulted in their competition for survival. This has also brought about their poor yields and population depletion in their environment. Thus, supplementation of fish feed with cheap locally produced diets containing the essential nutrients needed for fish survival and growth is a necessity. In the present study, we evaluated the nutritional compositions and haematological effect of locally produced fish feed on Heterobranchus Bidorsalis (Catfish) fingerlings. Methods: Pearson’s square method was used to formulate three diets A, B and C using different fractions of local ingredients. A commercial feed (Coppens) was used as a control diet. The feeds were evaluated for proximate, minerals, and amino acid compositions. Forty fingerlings of 2 g body weight were divided into 4 groups consisting of ten fingerlings each. Groups A-C were fed the formulated diets while group D was fed with the commercial feed. Each group was fed 5 % of their average body weight twice daily in an aquarium for 49 days. Results: The results revealed a significant increase (p<0.05) in protein (44.12±0.15 %), amino acids and minerals contents of diet A than other formulated diets (B and C) but lower than the control diet. The results of haematological parameters showed that fingerlings fed formulated diet A was significantly higher in values for RBC, haemoglobin and PCV but lower in WBC contents than the groups fed formulated diets B and C. Conclusion: Formulated diet A yielded a better result in terms of protein content, and haematological status of the catfish. Therefore, formulated diet A is the most preferably alternative for catfish fingerlings rearing

Efficacy of Formulated Feed Preference and Stocking Density on Growth and Survival of Baby Pila globosa Reared in Laboratory Condition

Quality diet as food for raising freshwater snails under laboratory conditions has a significant effect on their growth and the number of egg clutches laid as well as on the size of the snail. Now a days, some innovative farmers of Bangladesh started snail culture within their fish farms in the view of producing snail to use as feed for their Prawn (Macrobrachiam rosenbergii), indigenous catfish (Clarius batrachus) farms, domestic duck farms and also as a protein supplement for preparing fish feed. From previous study we know that Bulinus nyassanus growth and survive rate was found well on locally formulated fish diet consisting of 30% crude protein with ingredients comprising fish meal, maize bran, rice bran, soya bean, wheat bran, hemicellulose (binder), vitamin premix and mineral premix. But no such research has been done in case of apple snail. The present study was aimed to investigate the feed formulation preferred by Pila globosa species and their effects on survival and growth of these snails in laboratory condition. Three type of formulated feed viz., pellet feed, fish meal and 50% fish meal + 50% crusted khudipana were used for the experiment in high and low stocking density of baby snails. The present findings shown that the diets in order of preference based on their effects on growth and survival of snails were formulated pellet feed, fish meal and 50% fish meal+ 50% crushed khudipana. After rearing of 28 days, highest growth found 0.32g with 86.66% survival with formulated diet in 60nos/L stocking density and 0.35g with 90% survival with formulated diet in 30nos/L stocking density. It`s indicate that the snails reared on formulated pellet feed diets and lower stocking density gave better performance in terms of survival and mean growth rate than those reared on other diets.

The Gut Microbiota of Naturally Occurring and Laboratory Aquaculture Lytechinus variegatus Revealed Differences in the Community Composition, Taxonomic Co-Occurrence, and Predicted Functional Attributes

Sea urchins, in many instances, are collected from the wild, maintained in the laboratory aquaculture environment, and used as model animals for various scientific investigations. It has been increasingly evident that diet-driven dysbiosis of the gut microbiome could affect animal health and physiology, thereby impacting the outcome of the scientific studies. In this study, we compared the gut microbiome between naturally occurring (ENV) and formulated diet-fed laboratory aquaculture (LAB) sea urchin Lytechinus variegatus by amplicon sequencing of the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene and bioinformatics tools. Overall, the ENV gut digesta had higher taxa richness with an abundance of Propionigenium, Photobacterium, Roseimarinus, and Flavobacteriales. In contrast, the LAB group revealed fewer taxa richness, but noticeable abundances of Arcobacter, Agarivorans, and Shewanella. However, Campylobacteraceae, primarily represented by Arcobacter spp., was commonly associated with the gut tissues of both ENV and LAB groups whereas the gut digesta had taxa from Gammaproteobacteria, particularly Vibrio spp. Similarly, the co-occurrence network displayed taxonomic organizations interconnected by Arcobacter and Vibrio as being the key taxa in gut tissues and gut digesta, respectively. Predicted functional analysis of the gut tissues microbiota of both ENV and LAB groups showed a higher trend in energy-related metabolisms, whereas amino acids, carbohydrate, and lipid metabolisms heightened in the gut digesta. This study provides an outlook of the laboratory-formulated diet-fed aquaculture L. variegatus gut microbiome and predicted metabolic profile as compared to the naturally occurring animals, which should be taken into consideration for consistency, reproducibility, and translatability of scientific studies.

Impact of Dietary or Drinking Water Ruminococcus sp. Supplementation and/or Heat Stress on Growth, Histopathology, and Bursal Gene Expression of Broilers

This research was conducted to evaluate the impact of dietary or drinking water Ruminococcus sp. supplementation and/or heat stress (HS) on the growth, serum biochemistry, tissue antioxidant, phagocytic assay, histopathology, and bursa gene expression of broilers. Day-old broiler chicks were allotted into six groups according to HS and/or Ruminococcus with or without enzyme supplementation. The first group was the control one, with a formulated diet and normal environmental temperature but without any supplement. The second group fed on Ruminococcus-supplemented diet (1 kg/kg diet). The third group fed on a formulated diet without supplement, and Ruminococcus and digestive enzymes were given in drinking water (0.1 ml/L). The fourth one was the heat stress group, with a normal formulated diet. The fifth and the sixth groups served as second and third groups, respectively, but with heat stress. The results of this experiment indicated that thermal temperature negatively affected the parameters of growth performance, serum biochemical, tissue antioxidants, and phagocytic assay. Moreover, heat stress led to pathological lesions in the internal organs and affected the expression of some genes related to heat stress, including proapoptotic genes such as caspase8 and bax, inflammatory genes such as NF-κβ1, and heat shock protein such as HSP 70 in the bursal tissue. These bad effects and abnormalities were mitigated by Ruminococcus alone or with enzyme supplementation, which improved all the above-mentioned parameters.

Extruded breakfast meal from malted finger millet (Eleusine coracana) and watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) seed flour: in-vivo nutritional qualities study

Background The study aimed at evaluating the in-vivo nutritional qualities of extruded breakfast meal produced from flour blends of malted finger millet and watermelon seed. Results The proximate compositions of the flour blends revealed that there was progressive increase in protein (12.83–15.14) %, with increase in the watermelon substitution. The protein quality evaluation of the extrudate showed that the protein efficiency ratio ranged from 0.64 to 89.75, while the biological values were between (87.82–89.75)%. The relative organs weight of rats fed with extruded breakfast meal showed that, the weights of the kidney and liver of rats fed with extruded breakfast meal were significantly lower compared with rats fed with goldenmorn. The hematological indices showed that the packed cell volume and the red blood cell counts of rats fed with the formulated diets were significantly lower compared with those fed with goldenmorn but significantly higher than rats fed with basal. Meanwhile, the values of the white blood cells count for the formulated diet shows no significant difference compared with rats fed with goldenmorn. Conclusions Evidently, the growth performance of the rats fed with the extruded breakfast meal revealed that the formulated diets promote growth status of the animals with relatively low effect on organs of experimental rat used in this study. Hence, formulated diet may serve as alternative to expensive commercial breakfast meal.

Acceptance of a Protein Concentrate from Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) by Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens) Fed a Formulated Diet

The majority of plant proteins used in aquatic feeds are derived from seed meals, which may contain antinutritional factors. Protein concentrates from plant foliage have received less attention in fish feeding trials. Alfalfa protein concentrate (APC) is derived from fresh alfalfa foliage that contains approximately 52% protein and is low in fiber. A feeding trial was done to assess growth and feed efficiency responses of yellow perch (Perca flavescens) fed a formulated diet with 180 g/kg APC replacing all fishmeal compared to a control isonitrogenous diet with fishmeal. Yellow perch accepted the APC diet but gained weight at a lower specific growth rate (−0.07% per day) and had an elevated feed conversion ratio (+0.32 g feed/g growth) than fish on the control diet containing fishmeal. There was no impact on survivorship or condition nor differences in fillet yield or composition in fish on the diet with APC compared to the control fishmeal diet. These findings indicate that although replacing fishmeal with APC in a perch diet resulted in slower growth rates, the APC was accepted and has promise as a sustainable protein in aquatic feeds.