Palm Oil Based-Diet Enhances Growth Performance of Asian Seabass (Lates calcarifer, Centropomidae) Juveniles

The replacement of dietary marine fish oil with vegetable oils was examined in Asian seabass juveniles (Lates calcarifer, Centropomidae), over the course of a 7-week feeding trial. Four fish meal-based diets were formulated to contain iso-ingredients but with different sources of lipid including refined, bleached and deodorized palm olein (RBDPO), soybean oil (SBO) and canola oil (CNO), and their performance was compared with the control diet (FO) which contained cod liver oil as the added lipid source. The experimental diets were fed until satiation twice a day to triplicate groups of 12 fish in cylindrical cages that were placed in a 20 tonne polyethylene seawater tank. Fish fed diet RBDPO had significantly higher (P 0.05) weight gain than other fish groups at the end of feeding trial. The feed conversion ratio of diet RBDPO (1.52) was not significantly different from the control diet (1.53), and this value was better than the other experimental diets (1.98 in SBO and 1.75 in CNO). High survival rates of seabass juveniles were observed in the present study (95.5 to 100%) and were not affected by the dietary treatments. In view of the availability and competitive price of palm oil in the global market, it can be concluded that palm oil can be an excellent source of lipid in the commercial feed of Asian seabass.