Effect of fish meal replacement by soybean meal and baker's yeast on growth performance and feed utilization of juvenile Mesopotamichthys sharpeyi

In this study, effect of fish meal replacement by soybean meal and baker's yeast on the growth performance, feed utilization, morphometric parameters and survival of juvenile Mesopotamichthys sharpeyi were studied. Five diets consisted of a control treatment (no soybean meal and yeast), 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% fish meal replacement by soybean meal and baker's yeast with the same ratio in triplicates were randomly examined. In each 300- liter L tank, 40 juveniles with average weight of 4.4 ±0.29 g were stock and fed to satiation triple daily. The results showed that, fish meal replacement by different levels of soybean meal and baker's yeast had no negative effect (p > 0.05) on the final growth (7.8± 0.37g vs.7.13 ±0.35 g ) and survival rate (96.5±3.5 vs.97.63± 1.4 %) of juveniles in treatment of 100% fish meal replacement compared to control group. Also, the results showed that total feed intake (376.59± 26.34 vs. 309. 73± 7.92 g), total protein intake (120.5 ± 8.41 g vs. 99.1±2.55) (p0.05) were increased. Also, protein efficiency ratio was significantly (p0.05) different among treatments. So, it is suggested that soybean meal and baker’s yeast can be used for completely fish meal replacement in diet of binni fish.