NUTRITION, FEEDS AND

FEEDING
• Digestive process in fishes
• Organs involved & function
• Nutritional requirements
• Feed processing/characteristics
• Energy budgets
• Feeding regimes/rates
 AILIMENTARY TRACK

• Oral Cavity - Mouth, Teeth

• Esophagus
• Stomach - Cardiac and Pyloric
• Intestine – Small, large and rectum
 Digestive Organs - Liver

• LIVER - Process and storage of lipids

and carbohydrates, production of
plasma proteins
•

• Formation of bile
 Gall Bladder

• Stores bile and secretes into gut –

• Bilirubin (yellow color) – oxidizes to

biliverdin (blue-green) over time
•
 Digestive Organs- Pancreas

Exocrine
• Scattered islands of secretory tissue in
mesentery pyloric caeca
Endocrine - Islets of Langerhans
• Insulin and glucagon production for
carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism
 Classifications of fish species
Coldwater: Carnivores

Coolwater: Carnivores or omnivores

Warmwater: Herbivores or omnivores

• Feed must meet specific dietary

requirements
 NUTRITION, METABOLISM
AND GROWTH

•
 Proximate analysis
Feed formulated based on analysis of individual
ingredients
• Moisture
• Ether extract – fat soluble vitamins, carotene,
chlorophyll, sterols, waxes, fats and fatty acids
• Ash
• Crude fiber – low digestible plant carbohydrates
• Nitrogen-free extract (NFE) – consists mainly of
digestible carbohydrates
 PROTEIN
• 30-50% in most fish diets
• IMPORTANT FOR FISH – structure/muscle,
gonads and growth
• Proteins –
•
• Linear relationship between daily protein and
growth
• Utilization of protein relatively constant and
independent of feeding - (carnivore, omnivore,
herbivore)
 CARBOHYDRATES
• Not very important for most fish species
• Appear as sugars and starches
• Trout have limited ability to digest
sugars/starches
–
• May affect fish health
– Catfish digest starch well –
 CARBOHYDRATES
• Fish lack the enzyme cellulase
– Unable to break down cellulose
– Fiber usually considered to have 0 nutritional
value
• Cellulose often used as binding agent
• Levels of 10 to 20% have resulted in growth
depression in rainbow trout
–
• Catfish?
 LIPIDS

• Lipids for energy, structure and function

of _____________

• Fish utilize lipids with low melting points

(Pu fa) - polyunsaturated fatty acids
– Typically supplied in diets from 7-16%
 ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS

• Triglycerides with polyunsaturated fatty

acids
• w 3 and w 6 - Omega or linolenic series (n-
series) of fatty acids
• Digestibility of lipids is 85-95%
• Major source is fish oil (salmonids) or
soybean oil (ictalurids)
 MINERALS
• Required by all animals – fish can uptake some
from water
– Formation of skeletal tissue
– Respiration
– Digestion
– Osmoregulation (SW = high minerals/salts, FW = low
• Major minerals
– Ca, Phos, Sulphur, sodium, chloride ion, K+,
Magnesium
• Trace minerals
– Cobalt, Copper, Fluorine, Iodine, Iron, Manganese,
etc.
 MINERALS
• Dietary Phosphorus
–
–
• Phosphorus reduction
–
– Increase plant protein
• High in phytate phosphorus
–
 VITAMINS

• COMPLEX SUBSTANCES
• FAT SOLUBLE VITAMINS
– A- Retinol - carotenoids converted in
intestinal mucosa
– E - Tocopherol - antioxidants in fish diets*
– K - Two forms in green plants - blood
clotting and bacteriostatic
– D - calciferols not well understood
 WATER SOLUBLE VITAMINS

• B1 - coenzyme of carbohydrate metab

– digestion, reproduction, nervous system
• B2 - Riboflavin- eyes function, cataracts
• B6 - Pyridoxin
• Pantothenic acid
– Lamellar hyperplasia
• Inositol - reduced growth rates
 WATER SOLUBLE VITAMINS

• Niacin - haemorrhage erosion epidermis

• Biotin - can cause darkening anorexia
• Choline -poor growth and conversion
• Cyanocobalamic (B12)- anemia
• Folic acid - haemopoiesis - erythrocytic
anemia
 WATER SOLUBLE VITAMINS

• Ascorbic Acid (C) *

– Important - Collagen skeletal systems
– Wound healing, disease resistance
– Fish and primates can not synthesize
 Other dietary factors
• Attractants
– Attract fish by sight or smell (shrimp meal, fish oil,
fish meal, etc.)
–

• Pigments
– External

• Crayfish, red snapper, koi, etc.

– Flesh color – pink in salmon or trout
•
• Must be obtained from feed (crustaceans, yeast,
plants/algae)
 Other dietary factors

• Behavior
– How a feed particle moves through water
column
•
•
•
• Mimic natural food
 Practical diets

• Dry feeds:
–

– Made from all dry ingredients with addition of

liquid fat (fish or oilseed oil)
– Pellets, crumbles, or flakes
– Floating or sinking feeds of various size
designations
 Practical diets

• Pellets:
– Feed ingredients mixed and forced under
pressure through different size dies

– Stability varies depending on binders used

–
 Practical diets
• Microencapsulated – small particles of uniform
nutritional make up:
– Slurry of fine ground ingredients
– Encased in proteinaceous membrane (microcapsule)
– Expensive, but used for some species (larval marine)
• Moist and Semi-moist feeds (OMP – 32%
moisture)
– Formulated with high % of whole fish
–

– Stored frozen
 Practical diets
• Extruded feeds/pellets:
– Mixed ingredients passed through extruder
barrel
–

– Floating, slow sinking, and stable pellet

– Increase lipid content (energy) by spraying
extruded feeds after process
– Enhanced digestibility of some ingredients
–