Non-fishmeal based, and Selected Indigenous Raw Materials as Cost-Effective Feeds for Milkfish Aquaculture

Abstract

This study aimed to find alternative feeds or supplementary feeds that can perform similarly to the existing commercial feeds thereby reducing farmer expense and cutting down their cost of production and increasing their profitability on Milkfish (<em>Chanos chanos</em> Forsskål, 1775) aquaculture. The formulations for the study included four grow-out treatments mainly: control (commercial feed), taro+control (powdered <em>Colocasia esculenta</em>+commercial fish feed), bloodmeal (formulated fish feed based on bloodmeal), banana stem+control (chopped banana stem+commercial fish feed). The result of the study showed no significant differences between feed treatments from the 6^th^ week onwards, whether with weight (MS=0.130, df=3, <em>F</em>=1.14, <em>p</em>=0.333) or total length of the treatments (MS=0.008, df=3, <em>F</em>=0.40, <em>p</em>=0.75). The FCR ratio showed bloodmeal (1.60) as the lowest, followed by the control (1.65), and taro+commercial (1.71), and then banana stem+commercial (2.18). In terms of weight gain, fish from the bloodmeal treatment gained the highest (236.97 g), followed by control (223.33 g), then taro (217.67 g), and banana stem (196.99 g). As a result, we find that any of the tested treatments can serve as an alternative feed to using purely commercial fish feeds. Cost-benefit analysis showed that a better gross profit margin of 42% and cost-benefit ratio of 1.37 was observed in taro+commercial feed diet. The experiment showed that the taro, Blood meal, and banana stem can be used as an alternative feed component for sustainable milkfish farming.