Growth, survival, and body composition of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, when dietary fish meal is replaced with silkworm (Bombyx mori) pupae

Abstract

Abstract The effects of substituting fishmeal (FM) with different quantities of silkworm pupae (SP) on the growth, survival, and body composition of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum), were investigated over the course of a 60-day experiment. A total of 360 fingerlings (55±3.42 g) were randomly allotted to four treatment groups (T1 – fish fed 52.5% FM; T2 – fish fed 5% SP + 47.5% FM; T3 – fish fed 10 % SP+ 42.5% FM; T4 – fish fed 15% SP + 37.5% FM). Each treatment group was divided into three replicates of 30 fish per replicate. One group served as the control. At the end of the experiment, the results showed that 10% of FM can be replaced with SP without any adverse effects on the values of the feed conversion ratio (FCR), specific growth rate (SGR), weight gain percent (WG), condition factor (CF), survival rate (SR), protein content, lipid content, or nutrition protein utilization (NPU).