A feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effect of partial fish meal (FM) replacement by dietary soybean meal (SBM) on the growth and protein and lipid metabolism of the juvenile Japanese flounder. Four isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets (Diets 1-4) were formulated containing 47% protein and 9% lipid with different SBM inclusion (Diet 1, 11%; Diet 2, 16%; Diet 3, 24%; and Diet 4, 41%). The fish were fed to satiation twice daily for a feeding period of 56 days. The weight gain rate (WGR) and protein efficiency ratio of fish fed Diet 4 were significantly lower than those fed Diets 1, 2, and 3, and feed conversion ratio in the group fed Diet 4 was significantly higher than that in the groups fed Diets 1, 2, and 3. Hepatosomatic indices showed the similar trend as WGR, and the value (1.75%) for Diet 1 was significantly lower than that (1.96-2.2%) for other diets. There were no differences in whole body moisture, crude protein, crude lipid, and ash content among all treatments. With increasing dietary SBM level, serum triglyceride (TG), cholesterol (CHO), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) concentrations increased, whereas the serum total protein (TP) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations decreased. Compared with Diet 1, the serum TG, CHO, and LDL-C concentrations of fish fed Diet 4 significantly increased by 78, 37, and 36%, respectively, while the TP and HDL-C concentrations decreased by 14 and 33%, respectively. No significant differences in condition factor, blood urea nitrogen concentration, and alanine and aspartate aminotransferase activities were observed among the dietary treatments. These results indicated that dietary SBM inclusion above 24% could adversely affect the growth and protein and lipid metabolism of Japanese flounder.
