Supplemental Feed from Hydrolysis Feather Meal for Rearing Herbivore Fish in Semi-Intensive Culture System.

Abstract

A group fish farmer raises fish using an extensive culture system. The fish grow slowly, take a long time, to reach market size, and yield low production. They can produce and sell fish only once per year. Therefore, in order to increase production, they must raise them in a semi-intensive culture system, using supplemental feed made from feather meal, a byproduct of chicken processing, digested using natural enzymes, allowing farmers to process it themselves, and investigated the effects of using native chicken feather meal as a supplemental feed for raising fish in a semi-intensive culture. A completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications was used, consisting of five treatments: no supplemental feed, feather meal marinated with pineapple cores, feather meal marinated with raw papaya peels, complete feed made from feather meal marinated with pineapple cores, and complete feed made from feather meal marinated with raw papaya peels. Fish were fed at a rate of 5% of their body weight per day, divided into two feedings. Weight and growth data were collected every 2 weeks for 8 weeks. It was found that silver barb fed with supplemental feed in all forms had better growth than those not fed with supplemental feed. All forms of supplemental feed had a statistically significant effect on growth (P < 0.05). The use of ground native chicken feather meal as a supplemental feed in semi-intensive silver barb farming has a better effect on fish growth and survival rate than not providing supplemental feed. Supplemental feed in the form of complete feed yielded better results than feather meal used as a protein source alone. The use of ground native chicken feather meal as a raw material for aquatic animal feed is an alternative to obtaining fish feed with a lower price per kilogram than commercial feed.