Floc meal as potential substitute for soybean meal in tilapia diets under biofloc system conditions

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of replacing soybean meal (SBM) by low protein floc meal (LPFM; 24% CP) in tilapia diets on growth performance, feed utilization and fish chemical composition. Three isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets were formulated; control diet (C; without LPFM), FM ₂₅ (25% of SBM protein was substituted by LPFM) and FM ₅₀ (50% of SBM protein was substituted by LPFM). Nine 55l circular plastic tanks were stocked by 12 fish to form three experimental groups. No differences in tilapia performance were observed between the control and the FM ₂₅ diet. Chemical composition of fish did not differ significantly among treatments except for protein and selenium contents where the highest values were recorded in the control treatment. The highest mineral content was recorded in floc collected from the control tanks, while calcium content showed its highest value in floc collected from FM ₅₀ effluent. These data indicate that replacing soybean meal with LPFM up to 25%, had no negative effect on growth performance and potentially may improve the system sustainability. Meanwhile, the adverse effect of more inclusion of LPFM in tilapia diet may be attributed to the higher content of ash. In other word, minerals seem to cause more energy utilization in fish fed floc meal since it is needed to maintain osmotic homeostasis.