Efficacy of an Insect-Based Diet with Addition of Probiotics on Growth, Proximate Composition, Enzymatic Efficiency, and Immune Response of Nile Tilapia

Table 3

Weekly observations of growth parameters in terms of weight gain, length gain, feed conversion ratio, specific growth rate, and survival rate of Nile tilapia fed with different insect meals.

Treatments	T0	T1	T2	T3	T4	T5	T6	T7	T8
Initial weight	7.2 ± 0.057	7.4 ± 0.088	7.6 ± 0.115	7.4 ± 0.120	7.5 ± 0.057	7.7 ± 0.115	7.6 ± 0.115	7.7 ± 0.152	7.8 ± 0.173
Final weight	79.5 ± 0.871	84.5 ± 0.984	83.6 ± 1.074	78.5 ± 1.155	72.5 ± 0.768	85.2 ± 1.162	81.4 ± 0.982	78.7 ± 0.902	75.5 ± 1.115
Weight gain	72.3 ± 0.491^c	77.1 ± 0.548^a	76 ± 0.548^ab	71.1 ± 0.779^c	65 ± 0.617^d	77.5 ± 0.548^a	73.8 ± 0.705^bc	71 ± 0.808^c	67.7 ± 0.519^d
Initial length	5.2 ± 0.057	5.2 ± 0.033	5.3 ± 0.115	5.2 ± 0.088	5.2 ± 0.120	5.3 ± 0.145	5.3 ± 0.176	5.3 ± 0.088	5.4 ± 0.152
Final length	20 ± 0.578	21 ± 0.585	20.9 ± 0.577	19.9 ± 0.548	19.8 ± 0.896	20.9 ± 1.003	20.8 ± 0.721	19.8 ± 0.635	19.7 ± 0.635
Length gain	14.8 ± 0.145^a	15.8 ± 0.346^ab	15.6 ± 0.260^ab	14.7 ± 0.057^ab	14.6 ± 0.635^ab	15.6 ± 0.233^ab	15.5 ± 0.305^ab	14.5 ± 0.066 ^ab	14.3 ± 0.152^a
FCR	1.6 ± 0.057^cd	1.4 ± 0.075^d	1.5 ± 0.057^cd	1.7 ± 0.057^bcd	1.9 ± 0.066^ab	1.4 ± 0.057^d	1.6 ± 0.057^cd	1.7 ± 0.088^abc	2.0 ± 0.066^a
SGR	2.4 ± 0.773^ab	2.6 ± 0.057^a	2.5 ± 0.057ab	2.3 ± 0.033^ab	2.2 ± 0.088^b	2.6 ± 0.082^a	2.4 ± 0.033^ab	2.3 ± 0.088^ab	2.2 ± 0.057^b
Survival rate	92 ± 1.145^abc	96 ± 1.154^a	94 ± 1.101^ab	88 ± 1.154^abc	86 ± 1.4701^c	95 ± 1.527^ab	93 ± 1.154^abc	88 ± 1.527b^c	86 ± 1.527^c

The values in the same row with different superscripts differ significantly (). FCR, feed conversion ratio; SGR, specific growth rate. T₀ (100% fish meal), T₁ (25% maggot meal with 2% probiotics), T₂ (50% maggot meal + 2% probiotics), T₃ (75% maggot meal + 2% probiotics), T₄ (100% maggot meal + 2% probiotics), T₅ (25% BSFM + 2% probiotics), T₆ (50% BSFM + 2% probiotics), T₇ (75% BSFM + 2% probiotics), T₈ (100% BSFM + 2% probiotics).