Dietary protein requirement for maintenance, growth, and reproduction in fish: A review

Abstract

In a wide-ranging “Fish Nutrition” concept, protein is a chief and very relevant nutrient for the Fish. As a functional property of a nutrient, the protein will act as a source of energy for Maintenance, Growth, and Reproduction. This distribution will not remain constant throughout the fish life. As in earlier stage protein is mainly used for growth and maintenance, and after attaining sexual maturity, it is utilized for reproduction contributing to lesser growth. The optimum requirement for any species can be obtained mainly from dose-response curves in response to graded increments of dietary protein in the diet. However, the Protein requirement in fish depends on several factors like species, size and age, water temperature, water salinity, stocking density, and dietary Protein/Energy ratio. This article represents brief information on the protein requirement of fish for various activities.