Effects of Ulva Meal on Growth Performance of Gilthead Seabream (Sparus aurata) at Different Levels of Dietary Lipid

A nutrition trial was carried out to investigate the effects of inclusion of Ulva meal at different dietary lipid levels on growth performance, feed utilization and body composition of juvenile gilthead seabream, Sparus aurata. In this study, gilthead seabream with an average weight of 8.5 +/- 0.01 g were fed experimental diets for 7 weeks. The Eight isonitrogenous diets (crude protein 50%) were designed to provide 13% (13), 16% (16), 19% (19) and 22% (22) crude lipid with or without 4% inclusion of Ulva meal (13U, 16U, 19U and 22U). Final mean weight and specific growth rate (SGR) of gilthead seabream fed 22L-U were higher than that of 13L and 13L-U groups. The mean feed conversion ratio varied from 0.92 (22L-U) and 1.33 (13L and 13L-U). The present study shows that dietary low level (4%) Ulva meal at all dietary lipid levels could be used in juvenile gilthead seabream without causing any adverse effects on growth and feed utilization.