Effect of Spirulina pletensis Powder on Growth, Feed, Body Chemical Composition and Fatty Acids in Mugil cephalus Linnaeus, 1758

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Marine Sciences, Chabahar Maritime University, Chabahar, Iran

2 M.Sc. Student, Department of Fisheries, Marine Sciences Faculty, Chabahar Maritime University, Chabahar, Iran

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of Spirulina pletensis powder on the growth performances (final weight (FW), daily growth ratio (DGR), feed indices (feed conversion rate (FCR), voluntary feed intake (VFI), protein efficiency ratio (PER), protein produce value (PPV), body chemical (protein, fat, moisture and ash) and fatty acid composition of Mugil cephalus for 62 days. The experiment was run in a completely randomized design with 450 of grey mullet larvae (with an average weight of 0.72 ± 0.02 g) in 5 treatments with 3 replicates (n = 30 in each replicate). The treatments were control group without algae extract, other groups (treatment 2, 3,4 and 4) with algae extract, i.e 5, 10, 15 and 30 g/kg food. The results showed that at the end of experiment, the highest FW (5.13 ± 0.02g), DGR (3.44 ± 0.20%), the lowest FCR (0.99 ± 0.03), the highest PER (8.61±0.27), the highest PPV (39.48 ± 2.54), the highest crude protein (19.70 ± 0.30%), the highest crude lipid (10.08 ± 0.0%) and the highest poly unsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), including C18:2n-6 (32.60 ± 2.09%) and C18:3n-3 (3.72 ± 1.03%), were observed in the diet containing 15 g/kg algae extract in all of these parameters. The treatment 4 showed a significant difference with control treatment (P<0.05). Finally, the present results suggest that diet containing 15 g/kg Spirulina platensis could improve growth, feed performances, carcass quality and increase PUFA level in Mugil cephalus larvae.

Keywords

Main Subjects