ARTIFICIAL DIET WITH LOCAL RAW MATERIAL FOR SILVER POMPANO Trachinotus blochii GROW OUT  

More than 60% of operational cost in fish culture was contributed from feed cost. To resolve this problem, we try to use local raw material which was available abundantly. The objective of this trial was to study the effect of Sargassum for silver pompano grow out.

The experiment was conducted from May, 27^th to September, 16^th 2015. Fish was reared in floating net-cages 1 x 2 x 2 m³ and stocking density was 20 fishes/m³ with average initial body weight was 282.25 - 284 g/fish. Feeding frequency 2 times/day and daily quantity of feed was 5-3%/total biomass/day. There were three kind of treatments, as follows (A) feed formula with 5% Sargassum content; (B) feed formula without Sargassum content, and (C) commercial pellet feed as control. The proximate analysis of the feed use for each treatments are: A. crude protein 40.6%; crude fat 8.9%; crude fiber 2.4% and ash 17.5%; B. crude protein 39.6%; crude fat 9.1%; crude fiber 1.7% and ash 13.7%; C. crude protein 37%; crude fat 9%; crude fiber 4% and ash 11%. To know animal growth, every month fish sample was weighed.

Results of the study show that treatment B was higher in growth rate (0.53%) as well as  its feed conversion ratio was better (2.01)  followed with treatment A (0.46%) and  treatment C (0.43%). In term of survival rate, control (C) was highest (92%) and followed with treatment A (89%) and B (88%). The feed conversion ratio for the control was 2.04 and treatment A was 2.2.