The Effect of Using Planorbis sp as Food on Growth Indices of Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki

This study was aimed at investigating the effects of using Planorbis sp as a natural and low-cost food on the growth indices of Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki, one of the most famous loach fish in the ornamental fish industry. To this end, 135 baby fish with an average weight of 1.0 ±0.01 g and an initial length of 3 ±0.02 cm were collected. Then, they were distributed in equal numbers in nine glass aquariums with dimensions of 40 * 40 * 90 cm. In this study, three treatments of natural food (snail), corporate (biomar), and combination (snail + biomar) were used to feed loach fish for 48 days. Weight factors, feed conversion ratio, survival rate, specific growth rate, and weight gain percentage were examined during bioassay operations. The results revealed that the highest mean weight (2.62 g) and final length (4.56 cm) were obtained in the combined feeding treatment. Moreover, the comparison of fish survival percentage in different treatments shows the highest survival percentage in the combined diet with 7.97% and the lowest survival percentage in the snail diet with 3.93%, not showing a significant difference in this factor (P < 0.05). The results show that the combined use of snails and biomar in the diet leads to improved growth indices in fish.