Effects of stocking densities and protein levels in commercial feed on growth performance and survival rate of bagrid catfish (Mystus planiceps) during 30 to 100 culturing days from fingerling to seeding stage

Abstract

This study evaluated the effect of different stocking densities and different protein contents in the commercial feed on the growth performance and survival rate of bagrid catfish (Mystus planiceps) from the fingerling to seeding stage. This experiment was randomly arranged with 12 treatments (TM) based on density (fish.m^-2)+protein content (%) in the feed, including TM1: 200 fish.m^-2+30% protein of feed; TM2: 200 fish.m^-2+34% protein of feed; TM3: 200 fish.m^-2+38% protein of feed; TM4: 200 fish.m^-2+42% protein of feed; TM5: 300 fish.m^-2+30% protein of feed; TM6: 300 fish.m^-2+34% protein of feed; TM7: 300 fish.m^-2+38% protein of feed; TM8: 300 fish.m^-2+42% protein of feed; TM9: 400 fish.m^-2+30% protein of feed; TM10: 400 fish.m^-2+34% protein of feed; TM11: 400 fish.m^-2+38% protein of feed; TM12: 400 fish.m^-2+42% protein of feed. Each TM was repeated 3 times and experiment was monitored for 70 days. The results showed that the growth indicators of weight of fish in TM11 reached the highest (W_f=2,308.9 mg; WG=1,592.7 mg.fish^-1; DWG=22.8 mg.fish^-1.day^-1). Besides, the growth indicators of length of fish in TM11 also reached the highest (L­=58.1 mm; LG=24.1 mm.fish^-1; DLG=0.344 mg.fish^-1.day^-1). These FCR ranged from 1.9-2.8 and were not significantly different (p>0.05) between all TMs. These survival rates of fish ranged from 64.4-71.1% and were also not significantly different (p>0.05) between all TMs. Accordingly, 38% of protein in commercial feed combined with 400 fish.m^-2 of stocking density (TM11) was the optimal choice for farming bagrid catfish (Mystus planiceps) from fingerling to seeding stage.