Performance of rohu, Labeo rohita (Hamilton), fingerlings maintained on alternate feeding of plant and animal protein based diets

Abstract

To understand the applicability of mixed feeding schedule in the fingerlings of the Indian major carp-rohu, Labeo rohita, an 80-day feeding experiment was conducted in the laboratory involving alternate feeding of plant and animal protein based diets with low and high levels of proteins, respectively. Feeding one day with soaked Leucaena (′subabul′/′ipil-ipil′) leaf meal based diet, followed by three days of animal protein (fish meal) based diet (feeding schedule 1S/3F) resulted in better performance of rohu in terms of live weight gain (%), SGR (%/day) and FCR as compared to those fed continuously with animal protein based diet (schedule F). Schedule 1S/3F also resulted in higher protein deposition in muscle and protein efficiency ratio. The results are expected to open up a new avenue to develop better feeding strategies with a view of reducing feed input cost by incorporating plant ingredients in the diets and by taking advantage of the existing natural variations in daily digestibility of protein.