Partial replacement of fish meal by white leadtree meal in diets for juveniles of Giant River Prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii (De Man, 1879)

Abstract

The potential use of white leadtree (Leucaena leucocephala Lam.) meal to replace fish meal in diets for Macrobrachium rosenbergii (De Man, 1879) juveniles was assessed in a feeding trial. A total of 750 juveniles (approximately 2.0 cm/individual) were randomly assigned to fifteen tanks. Five iso-nitrogenous diets were formulated by replacing 12.5% (Diet 2), 25.0% (Diet 3), 37.5% (Diet 4) and 50.0% (Diet 5) of fish meal by L. leucocephala meal. A diet without fish meal substitution served as control treatment (Diet 1). The juveniles were fed the experimental diets for 70 days. Results revealed that juveniles fed with Diet 2 exhibited the highest specific growth rate (SGR) (3.62±0.13%) and daily growth rate (DGR) (0.014±0.0017 g day-1) followed by Diets 1 and 3. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) in SGR values among juveniles fed with Diets 1, 2 and 3. Juveniles fed with Diets 4 (3.04±0.14%, 0.008±0.0007 g day-1) and 5 (2.70±0.13%, 0.006±0.0004 g day-1) showed lower SGR and DGR values than those fed with the other diets. Results of the present study indicate that L. leucocephala meal could replace fish meal up to 25% in diets for M. rosenbergii juveniles.