Effect of Different Dietary Carbohydrate to Lipid Ratios on the Growth and Feed Performance of juvenile benni (Barbus sharpeyi)

This study was undertaken to determine the effects of various dietary carbohydrate to lipid (CHO/L) ratios on growth and feed performance of benni (Barbus sharpeyi) juveniles. Nine iso-nitrogenous (25% crude protein) and iso-caloric (3.5 kcal/g digestible energy) diets with varying CHO/L ratios (0.8 to 8.8) were tested for 8 weeks with three replicates. Each replicate was stocked with 20 fish (initial mean weight: 16.4 ± 0.2 g) that were fed to satiation thrice daily. Growth and feed indices increased significantly with change in dietary CHO/L ratio up to a signifinant level and then decreased (P < 0.05). Maximum Weight gain (118.4 ± 7.8), weight gain rate (35.9 ± 2.5), specific growth rate (0.5 ± 0.03), feed conversion ratio (2.7 ± 0.04), feed efficiency ratio (0.3 ± 0.01), protein efficiency ratio (1.4 ± 0.02) and net protein utilization (30.9 ± 6.3) were observed in diet D5, with CHO/L ratio of 4/8, that didn’t show any significant difference with diet D4, with CHO/L ratio of 3/8, but showed signifinant difference with other diets. It could be concluded that the optimal dietary CHO/L ratio for optimal growth and feeding performance of Barbus sharpeyi juveniles, ranged between 3.8 and 4.8.