Striped snakehead fish (Channa striata) feed utilizing maggot meal substitution for fish meal: Nutrient content, effects on growth, and feed utilization efficiency

Abstract

Maggot is a feed ingredient with a high nutrient content, 44.89% of crude protein, 14.67% of crude fat, 9.82% of crude fiber, 20.75% of ash, and 9.87% of nitrogen-free extract. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of maggot meal use as fish meal substitute to improve the efficiency of feed utilization and growth of striped snakehead fish (Channa striata). Fish samples used were striped snakehead fish with an average individual weight of 0.87 ± 0.01 grams/fish. Feeding the fish was daily at 08:00, 12:00, and 16:00 in West Indonesia Time at a fixed feed rate. Fish were reared for 60 days with a stocking density of 1 head/L. This experimental study was conducted following a completely randomized design with four treatments and three replications. Treatment A was without maggot meal substitution, B was with 10% maggot meal substitution, C was with 20% maggot meal substitution, and D was with 30% maggot meal substitution. Data were collected for feed utilization efficiency, protein efficiency ratio (PER), relative growth rate (RGR), survival rate (SR), and water quality. The best choice of fish meal substitution degree with maggot meal was the treatment C with 20% maggot meal to fish meal composition, which resulted in 14.12 ± 0.76% RGR, 71.57 ± 2.82% feed utilization efficiency, and 2.01 ± 0.08% PER. In conclusion, test feed with a 20% -25% substitution by maggot meal of fish meal was the best alternative for striped snakehead fish growth.

Keywords

• maggot
• fish meal
• feed utilization
• growth
• survival rate