Abstract
Two percent of monocalcuim phosphate (MCP) was added to control diet consisted of fish meal (18%), soybean meal (36%) and wheat flour (37%) in order to examine the effects on phosphorus (P) discharge and growth of carp (Cyprinus carpio). Growth trial, during which digestibility measurements were made over 7 days, was conducted for 4 weeks using a recirculated rearing system with a settling column for feces collection. Fishes (initial body weight of about 200 g) were fed five times a day upto satiation with tank controlled at $24-26^{\circ}C$. Fishes fed the diet containing 2% MCP (MCP-2) showed about two-fold improvement on both growth rate and feed utilization, compared to those of fishes fed the control diet; weight gain (129 g vs 62 g), feed conversion ratio (1.20 vs 2.46), protein efficiency ratio (2.09 vs 1.07) and daily growth index (3.70 vs 1.93). However, feed intakes were maintained at the same level (150 g/fish) between the two treatments. Dry matter digestibilities of two diets were relatively low, which were 58 and 60% for respective control and MCP-2 diets due to low digestibility of total carbohydrates. However, the digestibilities of both dietary protein (85%) and lipid (90%) of diets were relatively high. While all the P fed were observed to be discharged from fish fed control diet, the discharge from fish fed the MCP-2 diet was decreased up to less than the half (34.9 g/kg wt. gain) of the control. These present results revealed that the supplementation of dietary P requirement by MCP can not only promote growth performances but also reduce the level of P loading to water which is the primary water pollution indicator.