Evaluation of methods to estimate the essential amino acids requirements of fish from the muscle amino acid profile

Many methods to estimate amino acid requirement based on amino acid profile of fish have been proposed. This study evaluates the methodology proposed by Meyer & Fracalossi (2005) and by Tacon (1989) to estimate amino acids requirement of fish, which do exempt knowledge on previous nutritional requirement of reference amino acid. Data on amino acid requirement of pacu, Piaractus mesopotamicus, were used to validate de accuracy of those methods. Meyer & Fracalossi's and Tacon's methodology estimated the lysine requirement of pacu, respectively, at 13 and 23% above requirement determined using dose-response method. The values estimated by both methods lie within the range of requirements determined for other omnivorous fish species, the Meyer & Fracalossi (2005) method showing better accuracy.