Nutrient Concentrations of Catfish Feces and Practical Diets After Immersion in Water

A study was conducted to quantify changes in the proximate components of fish feces and feeds when immersed in water for varying time periods. Catfish feces, a floating catfish diet, and a sinking trout diet were immersed for 5, 10, 20, 40, or 80 minutes. Dry matter losses were noted for all samples after immersion in water. There was a disproportionate loss of crude protein, ash, and nitrogen free extract (NFE) from the catfish fecal samples, ash and ether extract from the floating catfish feed, and NFE from the sinking trout feed. The losses noted would change crude protein, ether extract, NFE, and energy digestion coefficients by less than 7%, but ash and crude fiber digestion coefficients could change by as much as 23 and 35%, respectively. The ash concentration of unimmersed catfish feces indicated that this component may be a reliable indicator of nutrient digestibility in catfish.