EFFECTS OF DIETARY PROTEIN LEVELS ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF FRESH WATER EEL Anguilla bicolor bicolor
The study was aimed to determine the optimum dietary protein level which can optimize growth performance of the eel A. bicolor bicolor on nursery phase. Experiment design applied in this study was Complately Randomized Design consisting of four treatments and three replications. The treatments namely T1, containing 37.66% protein, treatment T2 (41.30%), treatment T3 (45.38%) and treatment T4 (49.60%). Eels used for this study were 6.5±0.3 g in average body weight. Eels were reared in a series of aquaria with dimension 90×40×40 cm3 and filled with 100 L of clean fresh water. Number of eel stocked in aquarium were 400 g. Eels were fed until satiated twice a day at 8 a.m and 4 p.m for 60 days. The value of water quality is maintained in accordance with the environmental feasibility of fresh water eel culture. Parameters examined are growth performance (feed consumption, spesific growth rate, feed efficiency, protein and lipid retention, and survival rate), hepatosomatic index and whole body composition (% dry weight).
The result showed that different protein level is significantly affected growth performance (feed consumption, specific growth rate, feed efficiency, protein retention and lipid retention), protein and fat of whole body eels at confident limit of 5%. In contrary, there is no significant different on the survival rate, hepatosomatic index, nitrogen free extract and ash content of the body eel. The optimum growth performance was reached by dietary protein level of 45.38% and 49.60%.
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