ANALYSIS OF AMINO ACIDS LEVEL IN SESAME SEED MEAL INCORPORATION AS SOYBEAN MEAL REPLACER IN THE DIET OF THAI - CHITRALADA STRAIN OF Oreochromis niloticus

Nutrition, feed and feed management plays an important role in the development of sustainable aquaculture. As feed constitute the highest single cost item for running expenditure in aquaculture, it is imperative that artificial feed should be scientifically formulated, processed and supplied to the fish farming system. An experiment was conducted at Fisheries College and Research Institute,Thoothukudi. Eight (average 300 l) tanks with four different diets as soybean meal (SSM) replaced with sesame seed meal (SSM) T1 - 25 % SSM, T2 - 30 % SSM, T3 - 35 % SSM and control diet (without SSM) of protein contents were used to conduct the experiment. Analysed amino acid profile from different treatments and control  diet was in T1 - 25 % SSM (Arg - 2.75, Hist - 0.82, Isol - 0.88, Leu - 2.51, Lys -  3.36, Met - 0.38, Cys - 0.38, Phe - 1.76, Thr - 1.06,  Val - 0.96, Tyro - 1.07, Trypt - 0.29 ), T2 - 30 % SSM (Arg - 2.64, Hist - 0.73 , Isol - 0.86, Leu - 2.01, Lys -  3.11, Met - 0.22, Cys - 0.35, Phe - 1.70, Thr - 1.07,  Val - 0.93, Tyro - 0.93, Trypt - 0.30 ), T3 - 35 % SSM (Arg - 2.88, Hist - 0.86, Isol - 0.92, Leu - 2.60, Lys -  3.78, Met - 0.39, Cys - 0.38, Phe - 1.77, Thr - 1.08,  Val -0.99, Tyro - 1.09, Trypt - 0.24 ) and control (Arg - 2.34, Hist - 0.70, Isol - 0.86, Leu - 2.41, Lys -  2.36, Met - 0.13, Cys - 0.36, Phe - 1.64, Thr - 1.24,  Val - 0.78, Tyro - 0.24, Trypt - 0.20). The higher amino acid profile was recorded in T3 folowed by T1, T2 and control. The resuts demonstrated that 35 % sesame seed meal diet poccessing better amino acid profile than other treatments and showed good growth performance of Thai - Chitralada strain of O. niloticus.