A preliminary study on Oxya fuscovittata (Marschall) as an alternative nutrient supplement in the diets of Poecillia sphenops (Valenciennes).

Growth of the ornamental fish industry is being hindered by the scarcity of low cost feed; hence alternative protein supplements should be explored. In this context the present study aims to evaluate whether the grasshopper Oxya fuscovittata could be used as a supplement for fish meal in the diets of Poecillia sphenops, which is one of the most common ornamental fishes worldwide. The present work is divided into three phases: In the first phase proximate composition of the grasshopper is obtained and five diets are prepared where fish meal is gradually replaced by Oxya meal and named as control, D1, D2, D3 and D4. All the diets are formulated on iso-nitrogenous basis where the protein percentage is fixed at 400 g/kg. The second phase deals with feeding trial and in the third phase all the data of the feeding trial are subjected to a linear model. The feeding trial shows that the control, D1 and D2 fed fishes have almost similar results. The linear model proves that the variation in the indices are mainly due to replacement of fish meal by Oxya meal, not due to the variations of rice husk and mustard oil cake that are also used to formulate the diets of the present study. From the results two Oxya supplemented diets, i.e. D1 and D2 are proved to be almost equivalent to the control diet. Hence it is concluded that Oxya meal is able to replace 25% to 50% of fish meal from the diets of P. sphenops.