Digestibility of feed ingredients for the striped surubim Pseudoplatystoma reticulatum

Knowledge on apparent digestibility coefficients (ADC) is necessary to maximize the feed efficiency, thus lessening dietary nutrient and energy losses. This study tasks the determination of apparent digestibility of selected feedstuff to striped surubim Pseudoplatystoma reticulatum, a carnivorous, South American catfish of economic importance for fisheries and fish culture alike. Juvenile striped surubim (82.4 ± 17.7 g and 23.0 ± 1.6 cm) was distributed in 21 cylindrical, plastic cages (80 L), housed in seven 1000 L feeding tanks under constant water flow and aeration and conditioned to a two daily meals (20h00m and 22h00m) feeding regimen on a practical, reference diet (RD) (460.0 g kg−1 crude protein (CP); 19.23 kJ g−1 gross energy (GE)]. Test diets were obtained by adding of 1 g kg−1 chromium III oxide and 300 g kg−1 of one the following feedstuffs: fish meal (FM), meat and bone meal (MBM), poultry by‐product meal, feather meal, blood meal, soybean meal, wheat bran, corn and corn gluten meal to the RD. After the last daily meal, fish were transferred to cylindrical, conical‐bottomed aquaria (200 L) under aeration and continuous water exchange, coupled to refrigerated plastic bottles for faeces collection by sedimentation. Best ADC of protein (99.36%) and energy (86.25%) were recorded for poultry by‐product meal and MBM, respectively, which are thus deemed ideal surrogate feedstuffs to FM in the formulation and processing of diets for striped surubim.