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Abstract
The effects of feeding ratio and feeding frequency on growth, survival rate and feed conversion ratio during nursing Milkfish from the fry stage on juvenile was conducted using a factorial experiment. The three feeding rates were 5% fish weight (BW) / day, 10% BW / day and 15% BW / day combined with 3 feeding rates of 2 times / day (2F), 3 times / day (3F) and 4 times / day (4F) created 9 treatments. Each treatment had 3 replicates. Milkfish fry with the average size of 2.7 ± 0.08 cm were nursed in 27 composite tanks of 500 L each at stocking density of 1.5 fish /L. Fish were fed with weaning formulated diets named NRD for 28 days. The results showed that that there were significant interactions between feeding rate and feeding frequency on all criteria (P <0.05). In order to optimize the growth rate, survival, size hierarchy, feed conversion ratio and feeding frequency, feeding regime of 10% BW / day and 3 times / day was the best option. At this optimal feeding regime, the fish attained specific growth rate of 9.72% BW /day, survival rate of 95%), size hierarchy rate 3.13%, and feed conversion ratio of 1.8 at the end of the experiment.
Keywords: milkfish , feeding regime, growth, survival, feed conversion ratio