Growth performance of juvenile kuruma shrimp, Marsupenaeus japonicus (Bate) fed diets replacing fishmeal with soybean meal

A feeding trail was conducted to evaluate the effect of lowering dietary fishmeal (FM) levels while increasing levels of dehulled soybean meal (SBM) on growth, nutrient utilization and body composition of juvenile kuruma shrimp, Marsupenaeus japonicas. Five experimental diets were formulated to be isoenergetic, isolipidic and isonitrogenous with decreasing FM levels from 40 to 16% while increasing SBM from 0 to 33% respectively. Quadruplicate groups of shrimp (initial wt = 1.5 g) were fed the test diets for 56 days under the flow-through system. There were no significant differences in final weight (g) and specific growth rate (SGR, % day) among shrimp fed FM40, FM34, FM28 and FM22 diets respectively. Growth parameters significantly decreased in shrimp when fed FM16 diet, which was the lowest level of FM. Feed intake was positively correlated with the SGR of shrimp, and the lowest one was found in shrimp fed FM16 diet. Protein gain and retention, whole body lipid, arginine and methionine significantly decreased in FM16 fed group. Thus, it is concluded that dietary FM could be reduced down to 22% with SBM without compromising growth, nutrient utilization and retention, and whole body composition of kuruma shrimp.