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Evaluate the replacement of fishmeal with cricket meal (Gryllus bimaculatus) in feed for tire track eel (Mastacembelus favus) fingerling

Nguyen Huu Yen Nhi, Tran Kim Ngoc, Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang, Nguyen Thi Bich Hanh and Trinh Thi Lan

An Giang University, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
nhynhi@agu.edu.vn

Abstract

Tire track eel Mastacembus favushasdelicious taste and high nutritional value, is an important candidate species for commercial aquaculture in Vietnam, therefore, a ninety day-feeding experiment was carried out to evaluate the replacement of fishmeal with cricket meal in feed for tire track eels fingerlings. The experiment was completely randomize design with 3 treatments and 3 replicates, in which the control treatment used fishmeal without cricket meal (CM0), the treatment had fishmeal protein content replaced with 25% cricket meal protein (CM25) and treatment with fish meal protein content replaced by 50% cricket meal (CM50). Fish used in the experiment had an average weight of 4.2 g/fish and a length of 10.8 cm/fish. Experimental results showed that growth in weight and length of tire track eel after 90 days of the experiment had a statistically significant difference between treatments (p<0.05). Specifically, after 90 days, the best fish growth was in the CM50 treatment with a final weight of 13.1 g/fish and a specific growth rate of 1.26%/day, lowest in the CM0 treatment 10.5 g/fish and 1.01 %/day. DWG growth rate was highest in CM50 treatment (0.1 g/day) and lowest in CM0 treatment (0.07 g/day). The survival rate of fish in the treatments had no statistical difference (p>0.05) ranging from 92 - 99.3%. The highest FCR in the CM0 was 1.92 and the lowest in CM50 was 1.24. Thus, it can be concluded that replacing at least 50% of fishmeal protein with cricket meal in the diet of tire track eels does not have negative effect, but also increase the growth rate, feed efficiency of the fish.

Keywords: cricket meal, Mastacembelus, optimum growth, survival rate, tire track eels


Introduction

Tire track eel is a popular table fish owing to its delicious taste and high nutritional value (Gupta and Banerjee 2016) so it is one of the most economically important species and is now being farm-raised in Vietnam on a small scale to support local demand (Jamaluddin et al 2019). In nature, tire track eel is distributed in Asian countries (e.g., India, Lao, Pakistan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, China, Malaysia) and in Southeast Asia, it is commonly present in the basins of the Mekong Rivers (Ahmad et al 2018; Petsut and Kulabtong 2015; Rainboth 1996). In Vietnam, it is found in almost all regions of the country where the water flows lightly, e.g., crevices, rock embankments, bridge feet (Khoa and Huong 1993).

There is a few studies on population genetics (Jamsari et al 2014) with genetic structural variants in Southeast Asia (Jamaluddin et al 2019) isolated and identified. The research results on the use of feed also show that during rearing, this species prefer to use live feed (e.g., Moina and worms), especially worms for higher growth rate and survival rate than other feeds (Lenh 2010; Loan 2010; Nguyen Thanh Trung 2010). Recently, there have been studies on protein requirement as well as the possibility of using protein source from black fly larvae powder in feed formulas for this fish species (Nhi et al 2023a; Nhi et al 2022).

In aquaculture, actually, feed is considered an important factor determining the growth rate of fish. In current aquatic feed formulas, fish meal still dominates and the main source of protein for processing aquatic animals because of its incomparable nutritional value (Jackson 2006). At the same time, the demand for fish as human food is increasing due to its higher nutritional content and safe source of protein (Hicks et al 2019). In which, the cost of feed often accounts for the highest in the total cost of aquaculture, in which protein is considered an important nutrient component in the feed rations. Currently, the amount of fishmeal cannot meet the needs of the aquaculture industry, the source of raw materials is unstable and the price is high (Turchini et al 2019), so there are many studies to replace fishmeal protein with other protein sources from plants and animals as well as single-cell proteins (Daniel 2018; Oliva-Teles et al 2015).

Cricket Gryllus bimaculatus is frequently used as food for humans and fish, and they can be raised freely at low production costs (Taufek et al 2018). This is a sustainable cricket species with high nutritional value (Jeong et al 2021). They are being popularly farmed with mass production (Hang et al 2020; Hang et al 2022; Lam et al 2022; Lam et al 2023)

Cricket meal has been studied for alternative fishmeal in diets of many fish species such as in olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus (Jeong et al 2021), Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus fry (Perera and Bhujel 2021) and fingerling (Perera et al 2022), largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides (Wang et al 2022), striped snakehead Channa striata juveniles (Prachom et al 2023), cobia Rachycentron canadum (Chainark et al 2022), channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus(Fan et al 2023), catla Catla catla (Perera et al 2023), African catfish Clarias Gariepinus (Norhidayah 2016; Taufek 2016), Asian seabass, Lates calcarifer (Sen 2019), red tilapia Oreochromis spp (Hanan et al 2022). However, the potential of fishmeal replacing with cricket meal related to tire track eels fingerling stage has yet to be researched. Therefore, the study of evaluating the possibility of replacing fishmeal with cricket meal in the diet of tire track eel was conducted to examine the effect on growth rate, survival rate and feed efficiency of tire track eels in the culture tank, which contributing to the selection material sources for pellet feed.


Materials and methods

Experimental animal and conditions

This experiment was carried out on an experimental farm in An Giang University, Long Xuyen city, An Giang province, Vietnam. Tire track eel fingerlings were obtained from a local hatchery in Thoai Son, An Giang province, Vietnam. They were transported to the experimental unit in 0.5 m3 plastic containers with proper aeration. All the fingerlings were given a prophylactic dip in a solution of 3% NaCl for 5 minutes and were then acclimatized to the laboratory conditions for two weeks prior to the experiment, during which they were fed commercial feed with 42% crude protein level for snakehead fish (Uni-President Vietnam Co.,LTD, Vietnam). The fish were selected to have a relative uniform in size with initial weight ranged 4.2 g/fish and initial length ranged 10.8 cm/fish.

The cricket meal was produced form the biomass cricket farming in the farm in Long Xuyen city, Vietnam.

Each of the nine experimental tanks was aerated via one air stone connected to a low-pressure electrical blower (Resun GF-370, China). Each of the nine experimental tanks was equipped with substrates as plastic cluster for shelter. Experiment tanks were constructed by Quang Đat Company, Can Tho city, Viet Nam.

They were connected as a clear water recirculation system. It included nine parallel-connected composite settlement tanks with a volume of about 500L per tank, connected to a sedimentation tank containing sand and stones (1- 2 mm Ø), functioning as a biological filter. The tanks were housed in an open wall and closed roof construction on a concrete foundation. The water source was running municipal tap water dechlorinated by aeriation for 24 hours before use. About 30% of the water was replaced twice daily.

The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with 9 tanks (0.5m3/tank) with 3 treatments and three replicates (n = 3). Nine diets were formulated with different levels of cricket meal: 0%, 25%, and 50% with the same protein and energy levels.

Fish in the experiment were reared for 3 months at the density of 100 individual/m3.

Experimental diets

Three iso-energetic (19 MJ /Kg) and protein (45% crude protein) diets were produced with fish meal, soybean meal, wheat flour, cricket meal, fish oil, vegetable oil, earthworm liquid, premix vitamins - minerals, and CMC (Table 1 and 2) at the level of 0%, 25% and 50% protein from cricket meal replace for fishmeal. Diet recipes was given in Table 1 and the chemical composition was given in Table 2.

All ingredients were thoroughly mixed and then pelleted by using an electronic meat grinder (Quoc Hung company, Long Xuyen city, Vietnam) with pellet diameter and length in the range of 1 mm. All diets were dried by oven in 60 °C until the feed’s moisture less than 10%. Then diets were weighed and stored in sealed plastic bags in small portions at 5 °C until use.

Table 1. Ingredient composition (% DM) of diets with different cricket levels in feed for tire track eel fingerling

Cricket levels (%)

0

25

50

Fishmeal

59

44.3

29.4

Soybean meal

10

10

10

Wheat flour

22

22.3

22.6

Cricket meal

0

14.6

29.4

Squid oil

1

0.8

0.6

Vegetable oil

1

1

1

Earthworm liquid

2

2

2

Lysine

0.5

0.5

0.5

Methionin

0.5

0.5

0.5

Premix (Vitamin-minaral)a

2

2

2

CMCb

2

2

2

a Vitamin and mineral premix content per kg: vitamin A 4,000,000 UI; vitamin D3 800,000 UI; vitamin E 8,500 UI; vitamin K3 750 UI; vitamin B1 375 UI; vitamin C 8,750 UI; vitamin B2 1,600 mg; vitamin B6 750 mg; folic acid 200 mg; vitamin B12 3,000 µg; biotin 20,000 µg; methionine 2,500 mg; Mn, Zn, Mg, K and Na 10 mg. bCarboxymethyl cellulose, imported from Korea.



Table 2. Chemical composition and amino acid content of diets with different cricket levels for tire track eel fingerling (% in DM)

Diets with different level of cricket meal replace for fishmeal (%)

0

25

50

Crude protein

45.19

45.20

45.21

Crude lipid

8.55

8.56

8.56

NFE

28.37

31.20

34.06

Crude fiber

0.79

1.59

2.41

Gross energy (kJ/g)

18.93

19.42

19.92

Fish management

The tire track eels were fed to satiation (approximately 10% of BW) manually twice daily (between 7:00 - 9:00 and between 16:00 - 18:00) by using a plastic tube to put feed into the nets at the bottom of the tanks. Each feeding was closely monitored in each tank, the feed residue was collected, and the feeding rate was adjusted depending upon the feed consumed on the previous day. The amount of feed used was recorded during the experiment and used to calculate true feed intake. In addition, the feeding and swimming behaviours of the fish were monitored and recorded. The water of rearing tanks was changed about 30 % every day and feed residue were collected before next feedings. During the experiment, water environmental factors (e.g., temperature, pH, O2 and TAN and NO2) were daily monitored and controlled. Temperature in the experimental treatments ranged from 25.5 to 27.8oC, pH from 7.5 to 8.1, dissolved oxygen from 5.8 to 6.5 mg/L, total protein (TAN) 0.003 - 0.01 mg/L and NO2 from 0.01 to 0.3 mg/L were all within the appropriate limits for the normal growth and development of tire track eels (Boyd and Pillai 1985).

Measurements and calculations

All fish were weighted and measured for weight and length before and after experiment. Specific growth rate (SGR), daily weight gain (DWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), and survical rate (SR) were calculated using the equations (Da et al 2012; Nguyen et al 2021; Nhi et al 2023b; Zhang et al 2016):

SGR (%/day) = [(ln final Wt – ln initial Wt)/days] x 100

DWG (g/day) = (Final Wt – Initial Wt)/days

FCR = Total feed intake (g)/Total wet weight gain (g)

SR (%) = (Total number of fish harvest/Total number of fish cultured) x 100

Chemical analysis

Ingredients, feed and experimental fish samples before allocating to the experiments and after harvesting were kept frozen (-20oC) until analysis. Chemical compositions (e.g., crude protein, crude lipid, crude energy, crude fibre, ash and moisture) of these samples were analysed in triplicate and measured in dry mass as described in Nguyen et al (2021). Specifically, dry matter was determined drying in an oven at 105oC until constant weight. Ash content was determined by incineration of the samples at 560oC for 4 hours (until constant weight). Crude protein was calculated as 6.25 x %N analysed by the Kjeldahl method. Crude lipid was determined by Soxhlet extraction without acid hydrolysis. Crude fibre content was analysed using acid-base digestion (AOAC 2000). Nitrogen-free extract (NFE) was calculated as NFE (%) = 100 – (% protein + % lipid + % fibre + % ash). The gross energy (Kcal/Kg) was calculated by using gross energy values of 5.64 Kcal/g for crude protein, 4.11 Kcal/g for carbohydrate, and 9.44 Kcal/gfor crude fat (NRC 1993).

Statistical analysis

Statistical analyses were conducted using the general linear model procedure (GLM) of the Minitab 16.0 software. Means and standard error mean were calculated. One-way ANOVA and DUNCAN test were used to compare means between treatment groups.


Results and discussion

Growth of tire track eels with different levels of cricket meal replace fishmeal

There was no significant difference in initial sizes of fish (e.g., weight and length) between treatments (p> 0.05, Table 3). This indicates that the initial weight of fish did not affect the growth of fish after the experiment.

Table 3. Growth of tire track eels after 90 days fed experimental diets with different levels of cricket meal

Treatment (%)

SEM

p - value

CM0

CM25

CM50

Initial weight (g)

4.23a

4.22a

4.22a

0.01

0.186

Initial length (cm)

10.8a

10.8a

10.8a

0.04

0.533

Final weight (g)

10.5b

11.0ab

13.1a

0.58

0.039

Final length (cm)

15.6a

15.7a

16.1a

0.43

0.698

Weight gain (g)

6.26b

6.74ab

8.92a

0.58

0.038

DWG (g/day)

0.070b

0.075ab

0.099a

0.01

0.038

SGR (%/day)

1.01b

1.06ab

1.26a

0.05

0.037

Values are given as Lsmean, SEM=Standard Error of the Mean. Means with different superscript letters within rows are significantly different (p<0.05).

There was a significant difference in growth rates of tire track eels fed different level of cricket meal replace for fishmeal and the growth rate was highest in the 50% cricket meal diet group and the growth response of eels to increasing level of cricket meal in the diet (Figure 1). In fact, daily weight gain (DWG) of the 50% cricket meal group (0.099 g/day) was not significantly different from those of the 25% cricket meal group (0.075 g/day), but there were significant differences in DWG of 0% cricket meal group. Specific growth rate (SGR) of tire track eels in the treatments using different cricket meal contents ranged from 1.01 to 1.26 %/day. The 50% cricket meal group obtained the highest SGR (e.g., 1.26%/day) which was not significantly different from those of the treatment group 25% ( p > 0.05), but was significantly different (p< 0.05) from 0% cricket meal diet groups.

Figure 1. Growth response of eels to increasing level of cricket meal in the diet

The result of this study showed the similar trend of the other researches that fishmeal could be replaced by cricket meal in fish diets. Chainark et al (2022) indicated that cricket meal can be used to replace fish meal in cobia diets, at least at 30 % replacement. On olive flounder, the cricket meal could replace fishmeal protein maximum 60% in the diet without effect the growth performance (Jeong et al 2021). However, cricket meal protein could replace up to 100% for fishmeal protein without negative effect on growth performance but the optimum level giving the highest growth rate in the level of 80% cricket meal (Perera and Bhujel 2021).

Survival rates and feed efficiency

After 90-day treatment period, survival rates of tire track eels were relatively high ranging from 92.0 to 99.3% and there was no significant difference in survival rates between treatment groups (p> 0.05, Table 4). Thus, the results of this study showed that diets with different level of cricket meal replace fishmeal did not affect the survival rates of tire track eels. Similarly, most studies indicated that diets with different level of crickets have had no effect on fish survival. For example, in a study on Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fingerling, diets with different source of crickets (house cricket meal and field cricket meal) replace 100% of fishmeal did not affect survival rates of the fish as there was no significant difference in survival rates between treatment groups ranging from 93.3-97.3% (Perera et al 2022). The results of this study are similar to those of Jeong et al (2021) on olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) juvenile where survival rates fluctuated from 98.3 to 100% and there was no significant difference (p> 0.05) in the survival rates between diets with different protein contents of cricket meal replaced fish meal in the diets.

Table 4. Survival rates and feed efficiency of tire track eel fed diets with different cricket meal levels after a 90-day treatment period

Treatment

CM0

CM25

CM50

SEM

p-value

SR (%)

92.0a

92.0a

99.3a

3.96

0.38

FCR

1.92a

1.87a

1.24b

0.13

0.02

Values are given as Lsmean, SEM=Standard Error of the Mean. Means with different superscript letters within rows are significantly different (p<0.05).

Feed conversion ratio (FCR) seemed to decrease gradually as cricket meal levels in diets increased from 0% to 50% (Table 4). FCR was lowest in the treatment of 50% cricket meal (e.g., 1.24) which was significantly different (p<0.05) from those of the groups of 0% and 25% cricket meal. The results of this study are similar to those of (Nhi et al 2023a) on tire track eel (Mastacembelus favus) with the lowest FCR at the black soldier fly level of 50%.

Figure 2. Feed conversion rate of tire track eels to increasing level of cricket meal protein in the diet
Chemical composition of tire track eels before and after the experiment

Feed has a great influence on the biochemical composition of aquatic animals. The results of the biochemical composition analysis of tire track eels before and after the experiment are shown in Table 5.

Table 5. Biochemical composition of tire track eels (% wet weight)

Moisture

Protein

Lipid

Ash

Fish at the beginning

82.0

11.4

2.14

2.45

CM0

75.2a

17.1a

2.50a

3.02a

CM25

77.6a

15.6a

2.65a

2.65a

CM50

75.0a

16.9a

3.11a

2.86a

SEM

0.95

0.69

0.29

0.39

p - value

0.275

0.478

0.386

0.862

Values are given as Ls mean, SEM=Standard Error of the Mean. Means with different superscript letters within rows are significantly different (p<0.05)

The moisture of the fish after the experiment fluctuated between 75.0% and 77.6% and was lower than that of the original fish (82.0%). Other biochemical components such as protein, lipid and ash in the body of fish after the experiment were higher than those of the fish at the beginning of the experiment (Table 5).

Protein content of fish after the experiment ranged from 15.6 to 17.1% and there was no significant difference (p> 0.05) in the protein content of fish between this group. Lipid and ash content in the fish body after the experiment also showed a similar trend as the protein content (Table 5). These results were similar with the results using black soldier fly protein to replace fishmeal protein in the diets of tire track eels (Nhi et al 2023a).


Conclusion


Acknowledgments

This research is funded by Vietnam National University HoChiMinh City (VNU-HCM) under grant number B2021-16-01.


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