The effect of replacing fish meal with sunflower seed in the diet on the growth performance and biochemical composition of fingerling Rutilus frisii

The present study was performed to investigate the effect of replacing fish meal with sunflower meal in the diet and its effect on the growth performance and biochemical compositions of Rutilus frisii fingerlings. For this purpose, 240 specimens with an average weight of 1.14±0.8 g and an average total length of 5.03±0.3 cm in 12 tubs with a density of 20 in each and in four different treatments of 0 (control), 25, 50, and 75% sunflower meal with food ration formulated with the same percentage of protein, fat and energy levels were tested for eight weeks. In the parameters of food conversion factor, protein efficiency rate, growth factor, weight gain, length increase, average daily growth, survival percentage, final length, initial and final weight, no significant differences were observed (P>0.05), but in terms of mean status coefficient, a significant difference was observed (P<0.05). Also, the analysis of fish carcass analysis parameters showed that there was no significant difference between the treatments in terms of carcass moisture percentage (P>0.05), but in terms of ash percentage, protein percentage and carcass fat percentage, there was a significant difference was observed (P<0.05). The results showed that different levels of replacing sunflower meal with fish meal have no negative effect on the growth performance of R. Frisii. Therefore, to reduce the cost of feed production and economic efficiency of the studied fish breeding, up to 25% of sunflower meal can be replaced with fish meal in the diet composition.