This study investigated the effects of superworm meal as partial and total substitution of fish meal in diets of tilapia juveniles, Oreochromis niloticus. Five diets with 32% crude protein isonitrogenous diet were formulated with each diet replaced witn 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% superworm meals. The feeding trial was conducted over 56 days. 15 aquarium tanks contained ten juveniles each with an average weight of 5.57 ± 0.15 g. At the end of the trial, diets with 25 and 50% replacements found the highest values for live weight gain, specific growth rates, feed conversion ratio and protein efficienct ratio. No mortality was recorded thus making the superworm meal completely safe for Nile Tilapia.
Numerous studies on use of insects as alternative to fish meal have been described. Adesulu and Mustapha (2000) reported the use of housefly maggot meal as a substitute for fish meal in tilapia and African catfish diets. Bondari and Sheppard (1987) observed that channel catfish and blue tilapia fed on soldier fly larvae for 10 weeks were acceptable as food by consumers. Growth and organoleptic quality were not affected when common carp were fed on nondefatted silkworm pupae, a major byproduct of the sericulture industry in India (Nandeshaa et al., 2000). Ng et al. (2001) demonstrated that T. molitor larvae meal was highly palatable to the African catfish Clarias gariepinus) and could replace up to 40% of the fish meal component without reducing growth performance. The fish also seem to show the varying growth performance individually in the replicate tanks.
Citation:
Abd Rahman Jabir, M.D., S.A. Razak, and S. Vikineswary. (2012).Nutritive potential and utilization of super worm
(Zophobas morio) meal in the diet of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) juvenile. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 11(24), pp. 6592-6598. http://www.academicjournals.org/AJB