Aaron J Von Eschen, Michael L Brown, Kurt Rosentrater
A feeding trial was performed to investigate fermented soybean meal as a direct fishmeal replacement in juvenile Yellow Perch Perca flavescens diets. Four fishmeal replacement levels (25, 50, 75 and 100%) using fermented soybean meal were compared with a fishmeal control diet. Survival, weight gain, food conversion, protein efficiency, viscerosomatic index, hepatosomatic index, Fulton-type condition, and muscle ratio were determined after 105 days. No mortalities were observed during the feeding trial. Weight gain and feed conversion ratio were significantly impacted and negatively correlated with increasing fermented soybean meal inclusion. Fish fed diets containing 75% or greater fermented soybean meal failed to reach 100% weight gain by conclusion of the trial. Hepatosomatic index and viscerosomatic index showed no impact by replacement of fishmeal. Fermented soybean meal as a direct replacement for fishmeal does not appear to be a suitable replacement.
