Effect of dietary protein levels on growth of Ompok pabda (Siluridae) fry

An 80-day experiment was conducted to study the effect of different levels of dietary protein on growth, feed utilization and carcass composition of Ompok pabda fry. The feeds were prepared with three dietary levels of protein (Low, Medium and high), viz., 28 (LP 28), 33 (MP 33) and 38 (HP 38) percent on DM basis. Triplicate groups of O. pabda fry with mean initial body weight of 1.05 g were fed with the respective experimental diets, and were reared in tanks plumbed with flow through fresh water. The net weight gain was significantly higher (P<0.05) in LP33 compared to MP28 and HP38. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) of O. pabda fry was significantly (P<0.05) lower in MP33 and HP38 when compared to LP28. Protein efficiency ratio (PER) was significantly (P<0.01) lower for HP38 than MP33 and LP28.Carcass composition of O. pabda fry did not differ significantly with different level of protein. Thus from the present experiment it may be concluded that the O. pabda fry performed optimally on a diet with 33.2% crude protein.