Abstract
A 90-day feeding experiment was conducted in the laboratory to evaluate the performance of three potential protein sources, swamp cabbage, sweet potato leaf meals and blood meal either used singly or in combination in a diet for tilapia fingerlings. Five test diets containing approximately 40% crude protein were prepared. A diet composed of fish meal and soybean meal as sources of protein was used as control. Treatments were arranged in a completely randomized design at three replicates and each diet was fed to tilapia fingerlings at a rate of 10%, 8% and 6% of the total biomass daily for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd months of feeding. In terms of specific growth rates (%) fish fed Diet 4 containing 15% replacement of fish meal protein from blood meal gave the best growth performance, however this was comparable or similar to the results obtained in Diet 5 from a combination of swamp cabbage, sweet potato leaf meal and blood meal and from those of the control fish in Diet 1. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the feed conversion ratio and survival rates among the various dietary treatments. The highest PER values were obtained in Diets 4 and 5, while Diet 2 containing 15% replacement from swamp cabbage leaf meal produced the lowest followed by Diet 3, replacement came from sweet potato leaf meals.
