Growth performance of juvenile milkfish chanos chanos (forskal) on replacement of fish meal with plant based diet supplemented with dietary cell bound phytase of pichia anomala

Results of feeding trials on juvenile milkfish with seven types offish meal and soybean meal based diets distinctly indicated better results with fish meal based diet. nevertheless,soybean based diet supplemented with different levels of cell bound phytase from pichia anomala produced better growth performance than the soybean based diet without supplementation of phytase. the observations clearly suggested that milkfish would not show normal growth with plant based diet without phytase supplementation. among the three concentrations of cell bound phytase of p. anomala used in this investigation,1000 ftu/kg supplementation with plant based diets appeared to be favourable for the growth and survival of milkfish. the results of feed conversion efficiency,weight gain,condition factor,specific growth rate,protein efficiency ratio and survival rate at 1000 ftu/kg of phytase supplementation in soybean meal showed values comparable with the controlled diet. the biochemical profiles of the fish fed first,second,third and sixth diets were similar as compared to the fish fed fourth,fifth and seventh diets. it is suggested that commercial farming of milkfish can be practiced with soybean based diet with microbial phytase supplementation.