| Abstract: | Two 60‐day experiments were conducted sequentially to determine (i) lysine requirement of juvenile bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus based on the dose–response method, (ii) requirements for other essential amino acids (EAAs) using whole‐body amino acid profile and (iii) whether differences in growth rates of group‐housed versus individually‐housed bluegills lead to different lysine requirement levels because of the presence and absence, respectively, of social hierarchies. Seven, semi‐purified, experimental diets (isonitrogenous, isocaloric) were prepared to contain graded levels of digestible lysine (10–31 g kg−1). Experiment‐1 involved group‐housed bluegills (approximately 27 g, n = 10 fish/chamber, 4 chambers/diet) whereas experiment‐2 involved individually‐housed bluegills (approximately 30 g, n = 1 fish/chamber, 14 chambers/diet). Fish were fed twice daily to apparent satiation. Bluegill growth responses in both experiments generally improved (P < 0.05, anova ) with increasing dietary lysine levels from 10 to 16 g kg−1, and then levelled off with further increase in lysine level (P > 0.05). Optimal dietary lysine level (digestible basis) was estimated to be 15 g kg−1 based on broken‐line regression analyses of relative growth rate and feed conversion ratio with no differences being observed between the two rearing methods. Determined dietary requirement levels for other EAAs ranged from 2.4 g kg−1 (tryptophan) to 15.3 g kg−1 (leucine). |
