Protein requirement of jundia fingerlings, Rhamdia quelen, at two dietary energy concentrations

A feeding trial was carried out where five protein concentrations 26%, 29%, 33%, 37%, and 41% crude protein (CP)] were fed to jundia fingerlings at two dietary energy concentrations 3200 and 3650 kcal metabolizable energy (ME)/kg diet] to establish the protein requirement for this species. Triplicate groups of 23 fish (average weight 1.52±0.34 g) were each stocked in 120-l aquaria and fed semipurified diets twice a day to apparent satiation. After 90 days, fish weight gain (WG), specific growth rate (SGR), feed efficiency (FE), protein efficiency ratio (PER), energy retention (ER), apparent net protein utilization (ANPU), feed consumption (% body weight) and body composition (crude protein, fat, and ash) were affected by diet composition. Weight gain, SGR, FE, ANPU and ER increased (P<0.05) as the dietary protein concentration increased up to 33% and 37%, for fish fed diets containing 3650 and 3200 kcal, respectively. A significant interaction between dietary protein and energy was observed for WG, SGR, and PER. Feed consumption was not affected by dietary energy concentration, but decreased with increasing dietary protein concentration (P<0.05). Body fat decreased as dietary protein increased at both energy concentrations, but was higher in fish fed the 3650 kcal diet. The opposite was observed for body protein, ER, and ANPU (P<0.05). Our findings demonstrate that jundia presents dietary protein sparing effect when the energy concentration increases from 3200 to 3650 kcal/kg. Jundia protein requirement, determined by the broken line method, is between 32.6% and 37.3% CP, depending on dietary energy concentration.