Abdelhamid, A., Salem, M., Abdel Bakey, M. (2019). Is it Possible to Feed Nile Tilapia the Diets Containing Wastes of Opuntia ficus-indica?. Journal of Animal and Poultry Production, 10(1), 1-5. doi: 10.21608/jappmu.2019.40296
A. M. Abdelhamid; M. F. I. Salem; M. A. I. Abdel Bakey. "Is it Possible to Feed Nile Tilapia the Diets Containing Wastes of Opuntia ficus-indica?". Journal of Animal and Poultry Production, 10, 1, 2019, 1-5. doi: 10.21608/jappmu.2019.40296
Abdelhamid, A., Salem, M., Abdel Bakey, M. (2019). 'Is it Possible to Feed Nile Tilapia the Diets Containing Wastes of Opuntia ficus-indica?', Journal of Animal and Poultry Production, 10(1), pp. 1-5. doi: 10.21608/jappmu.2019.40296
Abdelhamid, A., Salem, M., Abdel Bakey, M. Is it Possible to Feed Nile Tilapia the Diets Containing Wastes of Opuntia ficus-indica?. Journal of Animal and Poultry Production, 2019; 10(1): 1-5. doi: 10.21608/jappmu.2019.40296
Is it Possible to Feed Nile Tilapia the Diets Containing Wastes of Opuntia ficus-indica?
1Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Dakahlia Governorate 35516, Egypt
2Aquaculture Research Unit, Sakha, Central Lab. of Aquaculture Research, Agricultural Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture, Cairo, Egypt
Abstract
An indoor feeding experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of replacing diet's corn by meals of fruit skin and leaves of Teen Barshomy (Teen Shoky) "Opuntia ficus-indica" on productive performance of all-males mono-sex Nile tilapia, Oreochromis nilotucus (17 g initial body weight and a total length of 9.2 cm). Ten glass aquaria (70 x 35 x 40cm) were stocked with 10 fish / aquarium. The feeding trial lasted for 75 days at a daily feeding rate 3% of the actual biomass. Five experimental diets were formulated to replace 25 and 50% of dietary corn by fig skins and fig leaves in diets (D) No. 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively besides the control one (diet No. 1). All experimental diets were formulated and pelleted into sinking diets with an average pellets diameter and length of 2mm and 1 cm, respectively. Diets were offered to fish 6 days a week at 2 meals (8 am and 2 pm) daily. The obtained results revealed no changes in the rearing water quality criteria. Fig skin and leaves are to some extent chemically similar, but it seems that the fig skin may be more nutritious than the leaves. The replacement affected the chemical composition of the experimental diets. The dietary inclusion of fig wastes decreased the feed consumption of the experimental diets than the control, improved (P≤0.05) each of final body weight (FBW), total body gain (TBG), daily body gain (DBG), specific growth rate (SGR), relative growth rate (RGR), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) as well as whole fish body composition. Thus, it is possible to feed mono-sex Nile tilapia the diets containing fig wastes as replacers for dietary corn without adversely effects on productive performance parameters of fish.