Tor tambroides, also known as empurau, is Malaysia's most valuable freshwater fish. With an extensive growing period, a good feeding management is required to maintain fish health. Probiotics have been shown to improve growth performance, feed utilization, immune response, and disease resistance in aquaculture. Lacto-sacc is the mixture of probiotics Lactobacillus acidophilus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae commonly used as feed additives and antibiotics substitute in the diet. This study evaluated the effect of different concentrations of Lacto-sacc mixtures on growth performance, feed utilization and digestive enzyme activities of Empurau (Tor tambroides) fingerling. Fingerlings with an average body weight of 6.53g ± 0.17g were stocked 50 fingerlings per tank into twelve 650L tanks. Diets were formulated with 40% protein and supplemented with different concentration of Lacto-sacc forming 4 experimental diets; control (0LS), 0.5% Lacto-sacc (0.5LS), 1.0% Lacto-sacc (1.0LS) and 1.25% Lacto-sacc (1.25LS). As result, the study showed no significant difference in most parameter. However, empurau fed with 0.5LS diet gave the best result, showing the highest weight gain, specific growth rate (SGR), lipase and protease activity with lowest feed conversion rate (FCR) compared to other treatments. From observation, the mortality in 0.5LS and 1.25LS was among the larger fish expected due to overfeeding. In contrast, the 0LS mortality showed symptoms of disease infection with pop-eye and red spots on the skin. The study shows that fingerlings supplied with Lacto-sacc, especially at 0.5% show better growth performance, feed utilization and digestive enzyme activities than the control diet.
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