Effect of Dietary Lipid Level and Protein Energy Ratio on Growth and Body Composition of Largemouth Bass Micropterus salmoides

A feeding trial was conducted in aquaria with juvenile largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides to examine the effects of increasing dietary lipid levels on growth and body composition. Feed‐trained largemouth bass fingerlings were graded to a similar size (16.3 ± 2.4 g) and randomly stocked into 15 113.6‐L glass aquaria at 25 fish/aquarium. Fingerlings were fed twice daily to apparent satiation with one of five isonitrogenous extruded experimental diets based on practical ingredients. Diets contained approximately 40% crude protein and either 0, 5, 10, 15, or 20% added lipid. Due to background lipids in the ingredients, this equated to total lipid levels of 7, 10, 16, 20, and 23%, respectively. These diets had protein to energy ratios of 137, 120, 106, 95, and 86 mg/kcal, respectively. There were three replicate aquaria per dietary treatment. After 12 wk, there were no statistically significant differences (P > 0.05) in average weight (g), specific growth rate (% body weight/d), survival (%), or protein efficiency ratio (PER, %) among fish fed the five diets, which averaged 79.3 ± 5.6, 1.9 ± 0.1, 99.5 ± 1.5, and 2.11 ± 0.19, respectively. Juvenile largemouth bass fed diets containing 15 and 20% added lipid had significantly lower (P± 0.05) feed conversion ratios (FCR) (1.1 ± 0.0 and 1.1 ± 0. 1, respectively) than fish fed diets containing 0, 5, and 10% added lipid (1.4 ± 0.1, 1.3 ± 0. 1, and 1.3 ± 0.2, respectively). Proximate analysis of whole body samples indicated a significantly higher (P ± 0.05) lipid content in fish fed 15 and 20% added lipid compared to fish fed lower lipid levels. While FCR was lowest in fish fed the 15 and 20% added lipid diets, increased whole body lipid deposition may indicate that these levels are above optimal levels for juvenile largemouth bass. It appears that 7–16% total dietary lipid (P/E:137–106 mg/kcal) is sufficient to support efficient growth without impacting body composition in juvenile largemouth bass when fed a diet containing 40% crude protein.