Growth Performance and Apparent Digestibility Coefficients of Selected Feed Ingredients for Red Swamp Crayfish Procambarus clarkia.

In this study, the growth performance and apparent digestibility coefficients (ADCs) of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), crude lipid (EE), gross energy (GE), phosphorus (P), essential amino acids (EAA), and nonessential amino acids (NEAA) for fish meal (local) (FM), soybean meal (SBM), rapeseed meal (RM), cottonseed meal (CM), peanut meal (PM), and extruded soybean (ESB) were determined for red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkia, (weight 5.43 ± 0.21 g), using a reference diet (RF) and test diets (70% RF diet plus 30% of tested ingredient) containing 0.1% Yttrium oxide as an inert marker. The results showed that there was no significant difference in SGR, FCR, and survival among all groups (P>0.05). Apparent digestibility of DM, CP, EE, P, and GE of six feed ingredients ranged from 62.8 to 71.4%, 71.2 to 90.3%, 44.2 to 92.1%, 70.1 to 83.9% and 40.3 to 63.5 %, respectively. From the data for the six feed ingredients, SBM was found to contain the highest ADCs levels in DM (71.4%) and GE (83.9%). FM recorded the highest ADC in EE (92.1%), while PM and CM had the highest ADCs of CP (90.3%), and P (63.5%), respectively. The lowest apparent digestibility of DM, CP, and GE was found in RM, the lowest apparent digestibility of EE was found in ESB, and FM had the lowest ADC of amino acids. Based on the current findings, SBM, CM, and PM could be considered potential substitutes for FM in diets for red swamp crayfish.