Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Fishery

Proper Fish Feed Formulation Guide

Fish feed formulation represents translation of nutrient and energy requirements of a given species for a given response into an acceptable diet using a balanced mixture of ingredients which is economically sustainable. The reliability of knowledge on the quality of ingredients and the constraints retained both have an impact on the quality of diet formulation.

A fish feed should supply all essential nutrients and energy in tune with the animal’s needs for the maintenance of vital physiological functions such as growth, reproduction and health. Besides, in aquaculture as in other animal production systems, another major issue is that of ensuring flesh and environmental quality, both of which are related to nutrition.

Since the nutrient requirements for all the new species under aquaculture are not known, it is rather a common practice to extend data from more or less closely related species. In the formulation of diets, it is essential that, even when the diets are formulated theoretically to contain all the essential nutrients in adequate quantities, the availability of these nutrients from the raw materials used can vary significantly.

The diet should be supplied in a form which is easily accepted by the cultivated animal and should have little adverse environmental impact.

Choices and Quality of Fish Feed Ingredient

Despite much research, both intensive and semi-intensive aquaculture relies upon a relatively small number of feed ingredients. Under semi-intensive culture conditions, cereal bran- oilcake mixture remains the major aqua-feed. In intensive aquaculture, the diets are formulated to be nutrient and energy dense, based mainly on ingredients of marine origin.

Since most teleost’s are known to utilize dietary carbohydrates rather poorly, the chosen ingredients are necessarily protein and energy-rich.

When it comes to finding alternatives to fishmeal’s as a protein and amino acid source, several other agricultural by-products such as animal by-products, cereals (wheat, corn), pulses (lupin, peas, faba beans), oil seeds (soybean, rapeseed) hold potential interest (Table 1), depending upon local availability and cost.

Fish Feed

Fish feed formulation is essentially applied nutrition. A number of terms and expressions are introduced that will be put to practical use as information is presented on the nature and qualities of various feedstuffs and the information presented on the nutrient requirements of fish.

Precise understanding of these terms is essential to their correct application. One must recognize that some of these terms have a built-in error that cannot be escaped. This does not eliminate their usefulness in feed formulation. However, one must appreciate the fact that some are useful approximations of the values and not true values.

The terms that one needs to understand to formulate practical fish diets are: crude protein level; energy level, either expressed as metabolizable energy (ME) or as digestible energy (DE); specific amino acid levels; crude fibre level; and ash level.

Since most complete practical fish diets are supplemented with a vitamin premix at levels in excess of the dietary requirement, this category of nutrients will be ignored temporarily. The potential problems occur when one fails to recognize that all of the above mentioned terms, except ME and DE, represent the quantity or level of a nutrient in the feed as determined by chemical tests on a specific sample of a feedstuff.

These chemical tests generally correlate well enough with biological methods of feed evaluation (growth studies, tissue, levels) to be very useful to feed formulators, but they are still chemical tests that are subject to experimental error during nutrient level determination. For example, the proximate composition of fish meals changes during the spawning season.

Generally, the lipid levels increase before spawning and decrease after spawning. This will alter the percent of protein, ash, and carbohydrates in fish meal as the seasons change.

Similarly, many plant feedstuffs vary in proximate composition with their stage of maturity at harvest, location grown, and other environmental conditions, such as the weather.

Tabled values represent an average value that is usually close enough to the actual value to allow accurate feed formulation. However, one must be aware that assumptions are being made in order to recognize the potential sources of error that may exist

Metabolizable, energy and digestible energy values are obtained biologically and, thus, should accurately represent the true energy value of feedstuffs to fish.

However, ME values may be obtained in different ways (faeces collection methods) and thus may be subject to experimental error.

It has recently been reported that the digestibility of feed by rainbow trout was lower at 7°C than at 11°C or 15°C. At 11°C and 15°C body size (18.6 g, 207.1 g or 585.7 g) did not affect feed digestibility. The digestibility of carbohydrate and energy was slightly reduced by meal size in rainbow trout fed at 1.6 percent body weight. Protein and lipid digestibility was not reduced by meal size.

Obvious differences exist between fish species in nutrient digestibility, especially in the carbohydrate fraction of feed. Herbivorous and, to a lesser extent, omnivorous fish have longer digestive tracts than do carnivorous fish and are able to obtain more digestible energy from carbohydrates. An awareness of these facts will prevent misuse of ME and DE values.

Each feedstuff in any diet formulation should be present for a specific reason; i.e., it is a good energy source, it is rich in a limiting amino acid, etc. In addition, each feedstuff in a particular diet formulation should be the least costly ingredient available for its particular function in the diet.

This leads to another assumption in feed formulation; that is, any nutrient in a particular feedstuff, such as an amino acid, is just as valuable as the same nutrient in any other feedstuff.

This allows feed formulators to interchange one feedstuff with another as cost and availability change. Thus, it is assumed that there is no “ideal formulation”, but rather an almost infinite number of possible feed formulations that met the nutritional needs of the fish equally well.

While this assumption may not be entirely valid and some nutritional judgement must be employed in any feed formulation, it does seem to be valid in most cases.

As with the previously mentioned assumption, an awareness of the potential pitfalls involved is necessary for the fish feed formulation so that allowances can be made in diet formulation and problems can be anticipated and avoided.

Physical Characteristics of Fish Feed Ingredients

Since most fish do not possess the necessary grinding appendices in the mouth, dietary particlesize should be sufficiently small to be ingested whole and available for digestive processes.

Generally, it is recommended that the particle size of all ingredients be below 250 microns but this should naturally be much lower when dealing with diets for larval or juvenile stages of fish.

The significance of reducing particle size on improving physical characteristics of the finished feed is related to improved digestibility. Reduction in particle size improves gelatinization ratio, increases pellet durability and water stability, but is economically rather expensive. Since most ingredients used for terrestrial animal production are rather coarse, fish feed manufacturers resorting to such ingredients have to pay special efforts to reduce the particle size of such ingredients.

Another aspect which has practical significance for the feed processing engineer is the possible differences in physical characteristics of the ingredients such as pack density, specific gravity, compressibility viscosity, heat capacity and conductivity, etc.

The adaptability of the feed manufacturer and his machinery to such changes in the physical characteristics of ingredients is important in fine-tuning the final product still meeting the nutritional standards.

Read Also : Operating Principles and Guide for Proper Fish Hatcheries

Fish Feed Quality Control

For formulating feeds for experimental purposes, it is necessary that all ingredients are controlled for all essential nutrients. But, under practical conditions, such a control is difficult to set forth and mostly restricted to rapid proximate composition analyses.

Specific attention should however be given to obtain guarantees for absence of anti-nutritional factors, to avoid adulteration of products and for homogeneity between batches.

Besides such quality control of incoming ingredients, a strict control of material flow within the factory is of utmost importance to avoid deterioration of the nutritional value (oxidation, potency of vitamins) of ingredients and premixes.

Fish Feed

To make the 27 percent crude protein carp feed, we must mix 17/35.8 of rice bran with 18.8/35.8 soybean meal.

So to make 100 kg of this feed we must mix 47.5 kg of rich bran with 52.5 kg of soybean meal.

If more than two feedstuffs are used in a feed, they may be grouped into basal feeds (CP < 20 percent) and protein supplements (CP > 20 percent), averaged within each group, and plugged into the square method.

For example, suppose shrimp meal and corn were also available for the carp feed mentioned above. The crude protein levels of the shrimp meal (52.7 percent) and of corn (10.2 percent) are averaged with soybean meal and rice bran, respectively.

Proper Fish Feed Formulation Guide

The square method is helpful to novice feed formulators because it can get them started in diet formulation without the need to resort to trial and error.

The square method can also be used to calculate the proportion of feeds tuffs to mix together to achieve a desired dietary energy level as well as a crude protein level

Steps in Proper Fish Feed Formulation

The first step in diet formulation is balancing the crude protein and energy levels. This can be accomplished by trial and error, by the square method for either crude protein level or energy level and then adjusting, or by solving simultaneous equations.

At first, it is helpful to use at least three feeds tuffs during the initial balancing of protein and energy levels: one high in protein and high in ME, one low or intermediate in protein and high in ME, and one low or intermediate in both protein and ME.

Once practice makes one more proficient at diet formulation any number of feedstuffs can be used. One must remember to reserve room in the formulation for any feed additive, such as a vitamin or mineral pre-mix.

The second step in diet formulation is to check the levels of indispensable amino acids in the formulation to be sure the dietary levels meet the requirements of the animal to be fed.

The requirements of fish for indispensable amino acids is expressed as the dietary level (as a percent of the diet) or as a percent of the dietary protein level. To convert an amino acid level from the percent of diet to percent of protein, divide the dietary level of each amino acid by the dietary protein level.

It might be of interest to calculate the dietary levels of all of the indispensable amino acids, but it is not practical to do it all of the time.

If the levels of arginine, lysine, methionine, and tryptophan meet the dietary requirements of the fish to be fed, the levels of the other six indispensable amino acids will most likely be above required levels. When using unconventional protein supplements, the levels of all ten indispensable amino acids should be checked.

If the diet formulation is low in any amino acid, a feedstuff that contains high levels of that amino acid must be added to the diet at the expense of another ingredient. Once the amino acid requirements are met, the dietary protein and energy levels must be rechecked to, see if any substitution of ingredients has imbalanced the formulation.

A diet mixing sheet should be constructed to standardize diet formulation. A sample sheet is shown in Table 1. The amino acids listed are for illustration purposes only and may be changed to suit different circumstances.

In practical feed formulation, pellet quality and acceptability must be considered in addition to nutrient levels and cost. These considerations will vary from species to species and with the type of pellet being made, and are dealt with in other sections of this manual.

Fish Feed Best-Buy Techniques

The price of the feedstuffs used in diet formulations must be considered to formulate a cost- efficient diet. Feedstuffs can be compared with one another on the basis cost per unit of protein, energy, or amino acid.

For example, suppose one has wheat middlings and wheat millrun available for a fish diet, which feedstuff would be the least expensive source of energy?

Wheat millrun costs US $ 0.0858/kg, and contains about 1200 kcal ME/kg.

Proper Fish Feed Formulation Guide

Wheat middlings cost US $ 01883/kg and contain 1663 kcal ME/kg.

Proper Fish Feed Formulation Guide

Thus, the wheat millrun which has a lower ME value for fish is the better buy because it costs less per kcal.

The cost of protein is often the greatest part of the cost of a fish diet. Therefore, substantial savings can be made by using best-buy techniques to determinate least expensive protein supplement. To compare anchovy meal and herring meal, the following calculations are made:

Anchovy meal costs US $ 0.5357/kg, and contains 70.9 percent protein.

Proper Fish Feed Formulation Guide

Herring meal costs US $ 0.4709/kg, and contains 76.7 percent protein.

Proper Fish Feed Formulation Guide

On the basis of cost per unit protein, herring meal is less expensive as a dietary ingredient than is anchovy meal.

To compare feedstuffs on the basis of cost per unit of an amino acid, one can calculate the best buy in the same way as before.

For example, sesame oil cake which has twice as much methionine content as does groundnut cake on a per unit protein basis would be a more attractive buy at comparable prices.

These kinds of comparisons are only valid if the nutrient in one feedstuff is as valuable or available to the animal as the same nutrient in another feed. Such comparisons should be made whenever prices change.

In summary, for any aquaculture venture to be viable and profitable it must have a regular and adequate supply of balanced artificial diets for the cultured fishes.

This is so because the dissolved nutrients that promote primary and secondary production in the natural environment are seasonal and might be insufficient or may not occur in the required proportion to meet the nutritional demand for culture fishes.

Supplementary feeding satisfies this need and ensures that fish gets the appropriate spectrum of its basic food requirement for maximum growth.

Supplementary diets are often called artificial diets could be mainly or partially made from natural or synthetic materials. Such preparations are made to meet the nutritional requirement of a particular fish species with provision for fishes of different size/age intervals.

Adequate feeding with supplementary diets improves fish resistance to diseases, ensures increase fish production and may enable more than one cropping session per year.

Fish feed formulation is essentially applied nutrition. For formulating feeds for experimental purposes, it is necessary that all ingredients are controlled for all essential nutrients. But, under practical conditions, such a control is difficult to set forth and mostly restricted to rapid proximate composition analyses.

Fish feedstuffs can be compared with one another on the basis cost per unit of protein, energy, or amino acid and the best-buy technique is very effective for this objective. Materials that are cheap and available in large quantity are favoured for fish feed.

Such materials include agricultural and industrial waste e.g. palm-kernel cake, groundnut cake, milltet/corn ban, rice bran, brewer waste and flour mill sweeping as well as animal waste including chicken offal, blood meal bone meal, shrimp meal and dung.

The use of cheap fish feeds without reduction in effectiveness is desirable in reducing over-head expenses

Read Also : The Eight (8) Main Types of Water Pollutants

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Benadine Nonye is an agricultural consultant and a writer with several years of professional experience in the agriculture industry. - National Diploma in Agricultural Technology - Bachelor's Degree in Agricultural Science - Master's Degree in Science Education - PhD Student in Agricultural Economics and Environmental Policy... Visit My Websites On: 1. Agric4Profits.com - Your Comprehensive Practical Agricultural Knowledge and Farmer’s Guide Website! 2. WealthinWastes.com - For Effective Environmental Management through Proper Waste Management and Recycling Practices! Join Me On: Twitter: @benadinenonye - Instagram: benadinenonye - LinkedIn: benadinenonye - YouTube: Agric4Profits TV - Pinterest: BenadineNonye4u - Facebook: BenadineNonye

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