Utilization of Fruit Processing Wastes in the Diet of Labeo rohita Fingerling

A feeding trial was conducted for 60 days to study the utilization of fruits processing wastes as feed ingredient in the diet of Labeo rohita fingerlings. One hundred and sixty fingerlings (av. body weight, $1.65g{\pm}0.03$) were equally distributed in four experimental groups having 4 replicates each. Four different experimental diets were prepared by replacing wheat flour and rice bran with either orange (T2) (Cirtus qurantium), pineapple (T3) (Ananas spp. and Pseudananas spp.) or sweet lime (T4) (Citrus sinensis) wastes to the basal diet along with the control (T1, without any fruit wastes) keeping the CP level at around 40%. The water quality parameters like DO, $CO_2$, pH, total alkalinity, total hardness, ammonia and water temperature were recorded within the optimum range. The diet containing 25% pineapple wastes (T3) showed significantly higher growth in terms of SGR (1.50), FCR (2.09) and PER (1.19) than the other groups. However, growth of T4 and T2 groups were not significantly different than the control group (T1). Protease activity (17.17 unit/mg protein), protein digestibility (91.57%) and carbohydrate digestibility (41.62%) were not significantly different among the different groups. Survival of the fingerlings were not significantly different among the experimental groups. It concludes that waste of orange, pineapple and sweet lime can be used at 25% level as a substitute of wheat flour and rice bran in the diet of Labeo rohita.