The effect of dietary incorporation of cockroach meal as protein source of Oreochromis shiranus (Trewavas 1983) diet

A study was conducted at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources Aquaculture farm from 15 February 2018 to 11 May 2018 to determine the effect of dietary incorporation of cockroach meal as protein source in Oreochromis shiranus diets on the growth rate and survival, and their effect on water quality. There was a significant (P<0.05) difference in total weight gain of fish among the treatments. The fish fed on the 25% replacement of soybean meal by cockroach meal resulted in higher weight gain of 24.17±0.98g compared to other treatments. This was followed by the 20% replacement meal (20.94±1.45). The control treatment (soybean meal only as a protein source) resulted in the least weight gain (18.29±1.10 g). The mean apparent feed conversion ratio (AFCR) of 4.2 was recorded in 25% cockroach meal replacement. The mean water pH taken in the morning and in the afternoon ranged from 6.0 to 7.5 and from 6.84 to 6.85, respectively. The dissolved oxygen ranged from 5.96 mgL-1 to 6.26.mgL-1 while ammonia ranged from 0.06 to 0.73 mgL-1 across the treatments. It can be concluded that replacing soybean meal with 25% of cockroach meal is possible for better growth performance of Oreochromis shiranus without affecting the water quality.