Journal of Marine Science: Research & Development
Open Access

Research Article

Is Fortification of Methionine Necessary in Soya Bean (Glycine Max) Based Feeds for Oreochromis andersonii (Castelnau, 1861) Raised in Semi-Concrete Ponds?

National Aquaculture Research and Development Centre, P. O. Box 22797, Kitwe, Zambia

*Corresponding Author:

Kefi AS
National Aquaculture Research and Development Centre
P. O. Box 22797, Kitwe, Zambia
Tel: 260 979 255 620/260 969 426 244
E-mail: askefi@yahoo.com

Received date: July 08, 2013; Accepted date: September 25, 2014; Published date: September 25, 2014

Citation: Kefi AS, Chung UP, Mupenda N, Mumba C (2014) Is Fortification of Methionine Necessary in Soya Bean (Glycine Max) Based Feeds for Oreochromis andersonii (Castelnau, 1861) Raised in Semi – Concrete Ponds?. J Marine Sci Res Dev 4:154. doi:10.4172/2155-9910.1000154

Copyright: © 2014 Kefi AS, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

An experiment was conducted to determine the optimal amount of methionine that can be incorporated in the soya bean based Oreochromis andersonii feeds. Three levels (2%, 4% and 6%) of methionine included in soya bean based feed (30% and 10% crude protein and crude lipid respectively) were tested on O. andersonii for seventy eight (78) days in hapas erected in a semi–concrete pond (250 m2 ) arranged in a complete randomized design. Specific growth rate (SGR% day-1), mean body weight gain (MBWG) (g) and apparent feed conversion efficiency (AFCE %) differed (P<0.05) among the treatments although the 4% and 6% gave similar (P>0.05) SGR (%), MBWG (g) and AFCE (%) but higher than the control and the lowest methionine level used in the experiment. Trend analysis showed a linear relationship (F=3.358, P=0.02) between Gonadosomatic Index (GSI) and methionine level with the highest methionine level producing fish with the highest GSI. Furthermore, the highest methionine level produced a significantly higher (P<0.05) GSI than in other treatments. However, females and larger sized fish appeared to mature earlier than males and smaller fish respectively. Fish body moisture and ash were similar (P>0.05) in all the treatments. It is, therefore, recommended that soya bean based feed can be fortified with 4% methionine to improve the O.andersonii growth. An economic analysis is required to ascertain the cost effectiveness of using the synthetic amino acid in soya bean fish feeds for O. andersonii.