Growth performance of common catfish (Ameiurus melas Raf.) fingerlings fed mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) diet

Abstract

A pre-fattening trial was performed to evaluate the effect of replacement of fishmeal (FM) with insect meal (IM, Tenebrio molitor) on growth performance and survival rate of common catfish (Ameiurus melas). Fingerlings of A. melas (mean body weight, 0.248±0.07g) were randomly distributed over 4 indoor tanks of 2 m3 at a density of 2,000 fish/tank, and kept at a temperature of 23-25°C in two separated recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). Fish were divided into two groups (two tanks per group): FM and IM. Fish of the FM group were fed with a control diet (51.6% protein and 18.1% lipid), whereas those of the IM group received a diet (50.8% protein and 22.1% lipid) in which 50% of FM was substituted with IM. Chemical parameters (moisture, crude protein, total lipids, ether extract, and ash) and fatty acid profile of the two feeds is reported. The feeding trial lasted 90 days and fish were weighed at the beginning of the trial and then on monthly basis. Growth performance was good in both groups. However, fish of the IM group reached a final mean body weight (4.2±0.6 g) significantly lower (p < 0.01 than that of the FM group (5.13±0.7 g). The survival rate of FM group (79%) was higher than that of IM (70%), too. In conclusion, the results of this study demonstrated that the diet with insect meal was able to sustain growth in catfish fingerlings but fish fed with FM performed better than those fed with IM

Tenebrio MolitorMeal in Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus Mykiss) Diets: Effects on Animal Performance, Nutrient Digestibility and Chemical Composition of Fillets

“…Regarding fish, some trials have been carried out with various fish species to evaluate the use of diets containing different insect meals, often used as FM substitutes (Fasakin et al, 2003;St-Hilaire et al, 2007b;Sealey et al, 2011;Alegbeleye et al, 2012;Kroeckel et al, 2012;Oso and Iwalaye, 2014;Roncarati et al, 2015). The results of these trials confirm the possibility of insect meals inclusion in aquaculture feeds, even though there could be some limits related to both insect and fish species (Henry et al, 2015).…”

“…In African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) Ng et al (2001) demonstrated that an inclusion up to 35% of TM meal (up to 80% replacement of the dietary fish meal component in the experimental diets) still maintained growth performances similar to those achieved using fishmeal diets. Nevertheless when fish have different nutritional requirements (i.e., for juveniles), the results may change, as noted by Roncarati et al (2015) who observed a reduction of weight growth and an increase of mortality in com-mon catfish (Ameiurus melas) fingerlings fed TM larvae meal containing diets. In European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) juveniles, data showed that an inclusion of 25% TM larvae meal did not affect growth performances while a higher inclusion level (50%) compromised the weight gain (Henry et al, 2015).…”

Effect of Tenebrio molitor larvae meal on growth performance, in vivo nutrients digestibility, somatic and marketable indexes of gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata)

“…Tenebrio molitor larvae meal (TM) has been used in broiler De Marco et al, 2015;Biasato et al, 2016) and laying hens (Giannone, 2003;Wang et al, 2005). In fish, TM was used in African catfish (Ng et al, 2001), rainbow trout , and European sea bass , black bullhead (Roncarati et al, 2015) with encouraging results.…”

The environmental sustainability of insects as food and feed. A review

“…In contrast, common catfish (Ameiurus melas Raf.) fingerlings and African catfish, C. gariepinus, grew slower when large proportions of the fish meal were replaced (Ng et al 2001;Roncarati et al 2015).…”