Digestible lysine requirement of Nile tilapia from 86 to 227 g fed arginine to lysine balanced diets

Abstract

This study was conducted out to determine the dietary digestible lysine requirements of Nile tilapia from 87 to 226 g. Fish (n = 170; average initial weight = 86.62 ± 4.89 g) were distributed 15 1000-L cages, in a completely randomized design with five treatments and three replicates, and fed extruded diets containing 0.88; 1.12; 1.36; 1.59 and 1.83% of digestible lysine, balanced to keep the arginine to lysine ratio as 1.43:1. There was no effect of the dietary lysine levels on whole body moisture and ash. By Linear Response Plateau analysis of lysine levels on daily gain, feed conversion, protein efficiency ratio and rate of protein deposition was estimated requirement of 1.31, 1.03, 1.16 and 1.31 % of lysine, respectively. A quadratic effect of lysine levels on whole body fat deposition ratio and whole body ether extract composition were observed, and the lowest values were estimated with 1.16% and 1.43% of dietary lysine, respectively. An increase of the dietary lysine levels resulted in linear increase on the fillet yield. The digestible lysine requirements of Nile tilapia (87 to 226 g) is 1.31%, in diets balanced for arginine to lysine ratio.