EFFECT OF DIFFERENT SOURCES AND LEVELS OF LIPIDS ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND EFFICIENCY OF FEED UTILIZATION OF NILE TILAPIA (OREOCHROMIS NILOTICUS)

Abstract

The present work was conduced in Fish Research Laboratory in the Department of Animal production Kafr El-sheikh, Faculty of Agriculture Tanta University to study the effect of using different sources and levels of lipids on growth performance and feed efficiency of Nile tilapia. The experiment was carried out in glass aquaria (80 x 35 x 40 em) with 80 liter of water in each supplied from tap water. Temperature was maintained on

25+1 C0

Nile tailapia fingerlings with 21.5 g average initial weight were

used in this study. The fish were randomly distributed on the experimental aquaria (10 fish in each). Twelve iso-nitrogenous experimental diets (30% protein) containing cotton seed oil, sunflower oil, fish oil and mutton tallow at 4, 8 and 12% levels were applied in duplicate for each diet (2 groups/ treatment).The experiment was continued for 84 days. The results of this study showed that: 1-The highest weight gain, average daily gain and specific growth rate

were obtained when the fish fed the diet containing 8% fish oil (diet

8), while the lowest values were observed in the control groups fed unsupplemented lipid diet. 2-There were no significant differences between diet 8 and each of diet 4 (4% sun flower oil), diet 5 (8% sun flower oil), diet 12 (12% animal fat), diet 9 (12% fish oil), diet 3 (12% cotton seed oil) diet 2 (8% cokton seed oil) and diet 11 (8% animal fat). 3-The best feed conversion ratio was observed in fishgroups fed diets 8

(8% fish oil). There were no significant differences in FCR among all diets including control.