Growth performance study of Koi fish, Anabas testudineus (Bloch) by utilization of poultry viscera, as a potential fish feed ingredient,replacing fishmeal

Background In India, fishmeal is habitually considered asthe major protein source for fish culture. Rising cost,deteriorating quality and unavailability of fishmeal causedhuge difficulty in modern aquaculture, particularly for fishnutrition. Nearly all Anabas testudineus cultures faced loss,due to high feed costs, inappropriate feed formulation andmanagement. So it was necessary to find a profitablereplacement of fishmeal, which could provide bettergrowth performance to A. testudineus.Results In this study, different types of poultry wasteswere tested, and poultry viscera confirmed satisfactoryresults, having 60.67 % crude protein (% Dry matter basis).Further, a feeding trial was conducted for 60 days in 90-Lcircular fibre tanks with proper aeration, to evaluate poultryviscera, in the formulated diet for A. testudineus. Triplicategroups of fingerlings each were fed four isonitrogenousdiets, at 5 % of wet body weight basis. Feed readjustedbiweekly. Comparatively, fish accumulated highest andsignificant (P.05) increase in body weight and fatdeposition, when dietary fishmeal completely replaced bypoultry viscera.Discussions Thus, this study revealed that better growthperformance in Koi, A. testudineus (Bloch) could beachieved through utilization of poultry viscera in the formulatedfish feed, compared to fishmeal. Hence, poultrywaste recycling could be stimulated also.