Vegetable Waste Meal as a Source of Feedstuff in Formulated Diets for Rohu (Labeo rohita Ham.) Fingerlings After Fermentation With Earthworm Intestinal Bacterium

Abstract

Vegetable waste, which is generated in large quantities on a daily basis in the urban and sub-urban markets in India, has immense potential to be used as a predominant nutrient source in fish diet formulations. In the present study an attempt was made to evaluate if vegetable waste could be fermented and used to replace fish meal (FM) in the preparation of formulated fish diet. As such, fermented vegetable waste meal was used as a protein supplement to replace fishmeal (FM) in the formulation of experimental diets for the Indian major carp Labeo rohita. Of the two supplementary diets, one containing 40% FM, the reference diet (T1) and the other containing fermented vegetable waste (50%) (T2), T2 showed significantly higher digestibility, growth, and protein deposition than the reference.