Xu Chen, Qiang-Qiang Liu, Jia-Jun Xie, Yun-Qiang Zhang and Jin Niu
Nutritional values and apparent digestibility coefficients for dry matter (ADMD), protein (APD), energy (AED) and amino acid (AAAD) of ten feedstuffs were determined for juvenile shrimp, which included Peruvian steam fish meal, Peruvian FAQ fish meal, local fish meal, soybean meal, peanut meal, shrimp head meal, cottonseed meal, rapeseed meal, wheat flour and brewer’s yeast. A reference diet and test diets that consisted of a 70:30 mixture of the reference diet to test feedstuff were used with 0.01% Yttrium oxide as an external marker. The eleven diets were fed to triplicate groups of juvenile Penaeus monodon (mean initial weight 1.13 g ± 0.02 g) for 56 days. After the 56-day trial, the highest and lowest values of weight gain (WG) and specific growth rate (SGR) of shrimp were found in shrimp head meal and cottonseed meal diet treatments, respectively. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) was in the range of 1.25-1.65. Peruvian steam fish meal and shrimp head meal diet treatments had the lowest FCR and cottonseed meal and rapeseed meal diet treatments had the highest FCR. The ADMD of diets is in the range of 63.52% to 80.07%. The values of ADMD in shrimp head meal and wheat flour diets (77.58% and 80.07%) were significantly higher than that in other diets (P<0.05). APD, AAAD and AED differed greatly among feedstuffs, from 82.2% to 110.5%, 88.26% to 103.37% and 64.5% to 97.6%, respectively. ADMD for the shrimp head meal, Peruvian FAQ fish meal and wheat flour were excellent (over 90%), while brewer’s yeast had lowest value of ADMD (under 60.52%). Peanut meal, cottonseed meal, rapeseed meal and brewer’s yeast had the lowest average AAAD (~90%). The average AAAD of Peruvian steam fish meal, Peruvian FAQ fish meal, local fish meal, soybean meal and shrimp head meal were nearly similar (95% to 99%). Wheat flour had the highest average AAAD (106%). In terms of ADMD, the most digestible ingredients were, in descending order, shrimp head meal, Peruvian FAQ fish meal, Peruvian steam fish meal, local fish meal for the marine feedstuffs; soybean meal and wheat flour are more preferable for P. monodon feed compared to other plant feedstuffs such as peanut meal, cottonseed meal and rapeseed meal.