S. Chowdhary, P. P. Srivastava1,,W. S. Lakra1,, A. K. Yadav, R. Dayal and S. Mishra
Assessment for the replacement of animal protein by plant protein, blended with glucosamine, feeding trials of 12 weeks was conducted for growth performances in Asian Catfish, Clarias batrachus fingerling (av. wt. 2.2+0.01 to 2.5g+0.01g).Six (34.27to 43.52 %,CP;3771.5to 3990.48kcal/100g, GE and crude lipid 1.67to 6.70%) diets were formulated. The animal or plant protein component of the diets was progressively added with glucosamine 0.5, 5.0 and 10.0 % in basic ingredients(F-1, PAG:: 0:100:0.5; F-2, PAG 0:100:5.0; F-3, PAG 0:100:10.0; F-4, PAG ::75:25:0.5; F-5, PAG:: 75:25:5.0; F-6, PAG:: 75:25:10.0.The best growth was recorded in fish fed F1 as 19.4±1.6g in F1 followed by F2, 18.7±0.6 g and F3, 18.6±0.5g. Amongst the plant protein fed fishes showed best growth in F4 followed by F6 and F5. The survival was improved in glucosamine supplemented feeds ranging from 73+4.9 to 80+3.8% whereas, the control showed 69+5.4%. The FCR, SGR, PER, feed intake, protein intake ranged between 1.9 + 0.1 to 2.4 + 0.2; 32.88 to 170.5%; 0.99 + 0.02 to 1.75 + 0.03; 136 + 15.0 to 600.0 + 31 mg; 68.5 + 5 to 187.6 + 11 mg. The synergistic growth on supplementing proteins and glucosamine showed significance (p<0.05) in case of weight gain, FCR, SGR, PER. The results suggest that the feeding habit of the fish with small crustaceans is met by the addition of glucosamine therefore, it is confirmed that glucosamine has impact on growth promotion in this fish when blended with plant origin ingredients
