Growth Performance of an Indigenous Carp Bangana dero (Hamilton) Fed on Formulated and Commercial Diets

Manipur is one of the states of North East India and 95% of the total population of the state consumed fish as staple food items. Most of the indigenous fishes in this state declined due to habitat destruction and overexploitation (Vishwanath, 2000). Development of aquaculture sector in this state is very important for mass production of target fish species.
        
 Among the indigenous fish species of Manipur, Bangana dero (Hamilton, 1822), common name kalabans, khabak/ngaton in Manipuri is a target fish candidate for aquaculture in this region. It has a ready demand in the local market of Manipur fetching triple price than that of Indian major carps (IMC). Over the last two decades the occurrence of fries and fingerlings of this high priced fish in Manipur have become reduced drastically (Basudha et al., 2017).
        
Induced breeding technique have been successfully developed for this species for spawn production in Manipur  (Basudha et al., 2017) and molecular analysis of this species is also conducted by Basudha et al., 2019. With the development of large-scale spawning programs for this species in aquaculture, the need also arose to produce readily available balanced artificial diets both formulated and commercial feeds which required for the rapid growth and intensive rearing of larvae and juveniles in captivity (Nekoubin and Sudagar, 2012).
        
One key biological component is the availability of suitable diets that are efficiently digested and provide the required nutrients for optimum growth (Mokokusang et al., 2003).  There are many reports on the growth analysing on Indian Major Carps and common carps using different diets (Ahmed et al., 2012; Mohapatra and Patra, 2014).  But there is no report on growth analysis and development of suitable formulated feed of this species so far from Manipur, India. The development of new species-specific feed for the successful culture of B. dero is required for the mass production of this species.
        
The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of formulated feed and commercial diet on growth performance of B. dero.

Fish samples
 
A total of 360 uniform size of B. dero with initial weight of 4.9±0.02 g were collected from Mayang Imphal fish farm Manipur and cultured at ICAR Manipur Centre Fish farm (Fig 1). The experiment was conducted with four treatments (T1, T2, T3 and T4) fed with 26% protein content in each of two commercial feeds 1 and 2, formulated prepared fish feed and control feed with mustard oil cake and rice bran in equal proportion. The density of fish in per tank was 15 fish. The feeding experiment was set up as triplicate for each treatment in a total of twelve fibreglass tanks (a density of 2.5 fish/m²) and the fish were fed with 4% of their body weight twice (8 a.m. and 2 p.m.) daily (Aga et al., 2017) for 6 months from 1^st June, 2018 to 27^th November, 2018. The physical and chemical parameters of water for different treatments during culture periods were observed and shown in Table 1. 
 

 

 
Feed preparation
 
Artificial feeds were prepared by using different ingredients (Table 2) which was locally available and mixed according to the formula of Pearson’s Square method.
 

 
Feed analysis
 
Nutritional composition of experimental diets are given in Table 3. Proximate composition of diets was carried out by using the Association of Analytical Chemists (AOAC 2003). Protein was determined by measuring nitrogen (Nx6.25) using Kjeldahl method, Crude lipid was determined by using chloroform: methanol Method (Bligh and Dyer, 1959) and moisture and ash by AOAC 2003.
 

 
Growth analysis
 
Sampling studies were conducted every 30^th day and the growth performances were calculated as mean growth and average mean growth, Biomass(initial and final), Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR), Feed Conversion Efficiency (FCE), Specific Growth Rate (SGR) and Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER). Statistical analysis were conducted by one-way ANOVA to analyze the significance of the difference among the means of treatments by using the SPSS program. The following formulas were used to calculate different growth parameters:
 
Average body weight gain (g) = Average final body weight (g)-Average initial body weight (g)
 
Specific Growth Rate (SGR, %) = [ln Final body Weight - ln Initial body Weight] / No. of culture days × 100
 
Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) = Dry feed intake (g) /Wet weight gain (g)
 
Feed Conversion Efficiency (FCE) = 1/FCR × 100
 
Initial Biomass = Average Initial weight × Total no. of fish
 
Final Biomass = Average Final Weight × Total no. of fish
 
Protein Efficiency Ratio = Wet Weight gain (g) / Protein fed (g)

The average mean growth pattern of Bangana dero fed on four diets is shown in Fig 2. The growth trend of B. dero during the 1^st month was sharply higher in all the treatments. However, the growth after 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th months was slightly lower for T1, T2 and T3 and upto 5^th month for T4. During the 4^th month onwards the fish again attained sharp growth (T1, T2 and T3). The growth pattern is uniform in the entire period of experiment fed by formulate fish feed (T3). Results showed that the effects of feeds on mean average weight is highest in treatment 1(T1) and lowest in T4 indicating commercial feed 1 have highest in growth and control have lowest (Table 2). FCR value is highest in T4 and lowest in T1. The maximum final body weight in treatment (Table 4) was observed in T1 (23.59g±0.01), followed by T3 (19.29gm±0.01) which was fed by commercial feed 1 and formulate fish feed. The statistical analysis revealed that FCR, PER, SGR, FCE and Biomass of all the treatments were significantly different (Table 4). The effects of feeds on mean average weight showed that fish fed by prepared feed (T3) have uniform growth rate with moderate SGR, PER and FCR (Fig 2, 3, 4, 5, Table 6). It indicates that the prepared fish feed in our laboratory also have better growth performance for this fish species.
 

 

 

 

 



        
In fish farming, nutrition is critical because feed represent 60% of production cost (Erondu et al., 2006, Sheunn et al., 2003). It is necessary to obtain a balance between a rapid fish growth and optimum use of the supplied feed. The use of commercial feed has become inevitable for the success of cyprinid culture under intensive culture conditions. The aquaculture development and increase in per unit volume of water depends upon the use of high quality and balance artificial feed. Formulation of diets and feeding strategies have often been aimed at meeting requirements for maximum growth rate for reducing production time in intensive aquaculture and therefore, achieving the fast growth in shortest possible time was the main criteria in aquaculture practice (Higgs et al., 1975).
        
Physico-chemical parameters like temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH and hardness of water in tanks for different feed treatments did not show any significant variations. The recorded values were within the optimum range for cyprinid fingerlings rearing (Ali, et al., 2000, Abid and Ahmed, 2009 a and b). Survival rate of fingerlings was 100% in all treatments; it is obviously under optimum rearing conditions.
        
The present study reveals that commercial feed and formulated feed prepared in our laboratory are good to enhance growth in the fingerling of B. dero and the present finding gave encouraging results which can support fish farmers and can improve the economics of the fish farming sector significantly.

The authors thank to Dr. N. Prakash, Director, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region Umiam Meghalaya, India for providing laboratory facilities. The first author is grateful to Depatrment of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India for financial assistance under Women Scientist-A (WOS-A) scheme (Ref. No. SR/WOS-A/LS-209/2017(G), dt. 24.04.2018).