Effectiveness of recombinant growth hormone through oral application on growth of snakehead fish juvenile Channa striata

Abstract

Snakehead fish, or gabus in local name (Channa striata) is a species that Indonesia could use for aquaculture due to the extensive maintenance period and expensive high protein feed as an obstacle in the culture process. This research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of recombinant growth hormone (rGH) through artificial feed on the growth performance of snakehead juveniles. The study consisted of the addition of rGH at a dose of 5 mg/kg of feed and the control feed without the addition of rGH. Tests were applied on two different sizes of juvenile, namely: 4.29 ± 0.12 cm with the body weight of 0.54 ± 0.05 g (5 replicated groups, 60 days maintenance; 7 days rGH-contained feed administration at satiation) and 5.30 ± 0.03 cm with the body weight of 0.70 ± 0.05 g (4 replicate groups, 90 days maintenance, seven days 4% rGH-contained feed per day). Each rGH treated fish was compared with the control at the same seed size. Fish is reared in a cage net system with a stocking density 30 fish/m3. The parameters were survival rate (SR), length growth, weight growth, and feed conversion ratio (FCR). The results showed the SR was similar, while the absolute growth in the weight and length of fish treated by rGH grew significantly in comparison to the control condition (P<0.05). This was also the case in FCR in the control treatment, which significantly compared to the treatment (P<0.05). Thus, it concluded that providing feed containing rGH improves the growth performance of snakehead fish in nursery activities.