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¹ Jeju National University, Department of Marine Life Sciences, Jeju 690-756, South Korea
² Aquafeed Research Center, National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI), Pohang 791-802, South Korea
³ Marine and Environmental Research Institute, Jeju National University, Jeju 695-814, South Korea DOI : 10.4194/1303-2712-v13_2_01 Viewed : 6538 - Downloaded : 6189 An 8-week feeding trial was conducted in low temperature season to investigate the effects of fish meal (FM) replacement with spirulina on growth performance, body composition and immune response of parrot fish and dietary antioxidant capacity. Four isonitrogenous (48% crud protein) and isocaloric (17.1 MJ/kg gross energy) diets were formulated to replace FM with 0 (as control), 5, 10 and 15% spirulina (designated as Con, S5, S10 and S15, respectively) and fed to the fish (initial body weight, 57±0.1 g) to apparent satiation. At the end of the feeding trial, significantly (P<0.05) higher weight gain, protein efficiency ratio and feed intake and lower feed conversion ratio were observed in fish fed S5 diet compared to those fed the Con and S15 diets. Hematocrit, hemoglobin and respiratory burst activity were also significantly (P<0.05) increased in fish fed S5 diet. Fish fed S15 diet had significantly (P<0.05) higher muscle protein and lower whole-body lipid than those fed the Con diet. Spirulina supplementation in diets increased dietary polyphenols concentration and antioxidant capacity in a dose dependent manner. A second-order polynomial regression analysis shows that the optimum dietary FM protein replacement level by spirulina is approximately 7.3% for the best growth rate. The findings indicate that spirulina can replace up to 15% FM protein (26% dietary inclusion) in the presence of relatively high soybean meal contents in diets for parrot fish. Keywords : Spirulina, fish meal replacement, growth, ımmune response, parrot fish