Influence of Earthworm Meal as Alternative Protein Source in Goldfish Carassius Auratus

By : J. Stephen Sampath Kumar , C. Judith Betsy , T. Gowsalya

Page No: 91-102

Abstract
The present study was carried out to find the influence of earthworm meal on the growth and gonad maturation of goldfish, Carassius auratus when used as an alternative protein source in the feed. The gold fishes were stocked in troughs of 45 liters capacity and maintained with replicates. They were fed with diet containing earthworm meal at two concentrations viz., 10% (E10) and 15% (E15) and a Control diet was also fed which has no earthworm meal. The experiment was carried out for a period of 60 days. Sampling on the bio-growth parameters was done once in 10 days. At the end of feeding trial, fishes fed with earthworm meal containing diet at 10% (E10) level had higher growth (38.56 g) when compared to fishes fed with earthworm meal containing diet at 15% level and control feed. Histological sections were taken once in 30 days. On the 60th day of the experiment, the Control group had no development and E15 group had partially developed eggs in the ovary but in goldfishes of E10 group, the eggs were in Secondary Vitellogenesis (SVO) stage as noticed in the histological sections of the ovary. Therefore, 10% earthworm meal containing diet is found optimum for growth and gonad maturation of goldfishes.

Authors :
T. Gowsalya and C. Judith Betsy
Department of Inland Aquaculture, Fisheries College & Research Institute, Tuticorin, India – 628 008

J. Stephen Sampath Kumar
Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture, Tamil Nadu Fisheries University, Nagapattinam, India.