Abstract

A six month feeding trial was conducted to investigate the influence of supplementation of fish oil and plant oil on growth, survival, size-distribution and condition indices of juvenile marron Cherax tenuimanus (2.37 ± 0.3 g mean weight), cultured in cages under farm conditions. Four isoenergetic and isonitrogenous practical diets (D1 - D4), containing 22% protein were prepared by mixing cod liver oil (D2), sunflower oil (D3) and a mixture of these two oils (D4) in the ratio of 1:1 to the basic diet D1. Marron fed diets D2 and D4 had significantly higher final mean weights (10 ± 0.39 and 11.7 ± 0.62 g, respectively) than those of marron fed on diet D1 (7.31 ± 0.46). Absence of oil supplementation in the diet (D1) resulted in significantly (P < 0.05) lower specific growth rate and lower survival than obtained with diets D2 and D4 and higher moisture content in the hepatopancreas and tail muscles tissues than all other diets. Feeding with diet D4 resulted in a total biomass of 858 ± 17.9 g which was similar to the biomass of marron fed D2 but significantly higher (P < 0.05) than the biomass of marron receiving diet D1 or D3. Marron receiving no formulated feed and free-ranging outside the experimental cages grew to a larger mean final weight (11.0 ± 0.70 g) than caged marron fed diet D1 and D3. They also had significantly (P < 0.05) lower hepatosomatic indices and lower tail to body weight ratio than the caged marron, receiving formulated feed (D1 - D4). Size distribution of marron was negatively skewed (- 0.09) in those marron fed diet D4. Our results indicate that there is a requirement of both fish and plant oil in the diet of marron.

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