A three months experimental trial was conducted to find out the protein requirement of Channa marulius fry reared in 12 hapa’s installed in earthen pond. Each hapa was stocked @ 15 C. marulius fry. The average initial weight and length for each treatment was 1.25±0.05g and 4.75±0.11cm respectively. The fish was fed with four formulated diets containing 40%, 45%, 50% and 55% dietary crude protein levels at 100% of their body weight for the first month followed by 70%, 60%, 50% and 40% on weekly basis in second and 40% in the third month. Results revealed that the highest net weight gain (154.72 g), biomass (173.72 g), SGR (2.20) and survival rate (93 %) of fish fry were recorded in 55% (CP) diet. The proximate analysis of whole body revealed that ash contents, crude protein and dry matter were found significantly (p < 0.05) higher in T4 followed by T3 than T2 and T1, respectively, whereas in terms of crude fat and moisture there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) observed among treatments. The amino acid composition of fish revealed non- significant difference (p > 0.05) for cysteine, methionine, aspartic acid, tyrosine and ornithine among treatments while threonine, serine, glutamic acid, glycine, alanine, valine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, histidine, lysine arginine and proline were found significantly (p < 0.05) higher in T2 and T4 compared to T1 and T3, respectively. It is concluded that a diet of 55% CP showed better growth performance and nutrients profile compared to other treatments for Channa marulius fry.
Keywords: Channa marulius, Protein requirement, Growth performance, Survival, Body composition, Amino acids profile.