Evaluation of Growth Performance in Mugil cephalus l. Juveniles Fed Diets Incorporated with Fermented Plant Feedstuffs Replacing Fishmeal or Diets Supplemented with Fish Gut Bacteria

An experiment was conducted to evaluate utilization of fermented ingredients for replacing fish meal and examine the efficacy of live bacterial supplement in diets of Mugil cephalus juveniles. The experiment had six treatment groups (I, II, III, IV, V and VI) of M. cephalus juveniles (0.12 ± 0.001 g) with triplicate. A control diet (group I) was prepared with plant feedstuffs (wheat flour, rice bran, mustard cake) and fish meal. For other diets, plant feedstuffs (rice bran, mustard cake, sunflower cake, sesame cake, azolla meal, leucaena leaf meal) were fermented with two gut bacteria i.e., Bacillus sp. DDKRC1., Bacillus subtilis DDKRC5., isolated from Lates calcarifer and Chanos Chanos, respectively. Diets for groups II, III, IV and V were formulated with fermented ingredients replacing 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of fish meal by weight. Diet for group VI was prepared by supplementing the control feed with mixture of Bacillus subtilis DDKRC5 and Bacillus sp. DDKRC1, (1:1) at 1% (v/w) of feed. The Diets were offered twice daily for a period of six weeks. Supplementation of live bacterial mixture with control diet could improve (P<0.01) nutrient digestibility, growth rate, feed conversion ratio (FCR), protein efficiency ratio (PER),body protein and lipid content and immune response and fermented ingredients could replace 75% of fish meal in diet of M. cephalus without affecting growth rate, FCR, PER, survival, body protein and lipid content and hematological indices.