Effect of dietary protein and lipid level on growth, feed utilization, and muscle composition in golden mandarin fish Siniperca scherzeri

A feeding trial was designed to assess the effects of dietary protein and lipid content on growth, feed utilization efficiency, and muscle proximate composition of juvenile mandarin fish, Siniperca scherzeri. Six experimental diets were formulated with a combination of three protein (35, 45, and 55%) and two dietary lipid levels (7 and 14%). Each diet was fed to triplicate groups of fish ($8.3{\pm}0.1g$) to apparent satiation for 8 weeks. The results showed that growth performance in terms of weight gain (WG) and specific growth rate (SGR) increased with increasing dietary protein level from 35 to 55% at the same dietary lipid level. At the same dietary lipid content, WG and SGR obtained with diets containing 55% protein was significantly higher than those obtained with diets containing 45 and 35% protein. No significant effect on growth rate was found when the dietary level of lipid was increased from 7 to 14%. While the levels of protein and lipid in the diets had no significant effect on feed intake, other nutrient utilization efficiency parameters including daily protein intake (DPI), feed efficiency (FE), and protein efficiency ratio (PER) showed a similar trend to that of growth rates, with the highest values obtained with diets containing 55% protein. Muscle chemical composition was not significantly affected by the different dietary treatments for each dietary lipid or protein level tested. These findings may suggest that a practical diet containing 55% protein and 7% lipid provides sufficient nutrient and energy to support the acceptable growth rates and nutrient utilization of mandarin fish juveniles.