Fatty Acid Profile of Captive Barb Fish (Barbonymus balleroides)

Abstract

Barbonymus balleroides or barb fish is a freshwater fish that threaten by overexploitation and overfishing in their natural habitat. Our continuous investigation showed that fat content of barb fish that has been maintained in our pond facility for more than 1 year was decreasing. Since fatty acid (FA) is important property for farmed fish therefore it is essential to evaluate fatty acid profile of flesh and byproduct of captive Barb Fish. Captive fishes were originated from two different locations, Serayu River, Banjarnegara and Cipunagara River, Cianjur. FA composition of flesh and byproduct of fishes were analyzed using Gas Chromatography. Result showed that both flesh and byproduct of both origin contained good quality of FA particularly omega 3 and omega 6 and other beneficial unsaturated fat, omega 9. However captive barb fish showed lower FA composition than wild barb fish that could be influenced by its feed and other environmental parameter. The high composition of FA in barb fish byproduct indicated its potency to be utilized further for nutrition source. This study showed the needed to make further improvement in barb fish cultivation so that it could produces high quality farmed fish.