Influence of Dietary Lysine Level on Growth Performance, Feed Efficiency, and Body Composition of Sangkuriang Catfish (Clarias gariepinus var. Sangkuriang) Fingerlings

The high consumer demand in Indonesia encourages catfish farmers to conduct an intensive culture. A low feed efficiency mainly occurs in cultivating Sangkuriang catfish resulting in poor growth. This condition might be caused by low lysine content, as lysine is an essential amino acid that the fish cannot synthesize. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of lysine supplementation in feed on protein digestibility, feed efficiency, and growth of Sangkuriang catfish (Clarias gariepinus var. Sangkuriang) fingerlings. The study used 270 Sangkuriang catfish with an average wet weight of 7.54 ± 0.13 g/fish. The experimental feed contained protein, energy, and amino acid, and then various doses of lysine were added to the experimental feed: (1) 0.0%, (2) 0.5%, (3) 1.0%, (4) 1.5%, (5) 2.0%, and (6) 2.5%. Weight gain (WG), protein digestibility (ADCp), the efficiency of feed utilization (EFU), relative growth rate (RGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR), protein efficiency ratio (PER), and protein retention (PR) of catfish were evaluated for 8 weeks. The results found that the supplementation of lysine in feed significantly (P < 0.05) influenced WG, ADCp, EFU, RGR, FCR, PER, and PR of Sangkuriang catfish fingerling. However, there was no significant effect (P > 0.05) on the SR of Sangkuriang catfish fingerling. The supplementation of 1% lysine/kg feed was the optimal dose to improve the feed efficiency and growth of Sangkuriang catfish fingerlings by 83.79% and 3.94%/day, respectively. Therefore, the supplementation of lysine could increase Sangkuriang catfish production.