Grouper is one of the fish that is much sought after by the general public because grouper has high economic value and one of the exported fish products. This causes the demand for grouper to increase by 1.11% in 2016. The high demand for grouper causes the community to develop grouper hatchery business. The cantang hybrid grouper hatchery business is a good step to provide good quality seeds.
The problems that often found in grouper hatchery are inappropriate given feed and poor water quality. They cause higher mortality rate of grouper seeds that even reaches 90%. Appropriate feeding and feed efficiency are very influential on the optimal process of fish growth. One of the feed management includes feeding frequency. The feeding frequency is influenced by several factors, the age, type and appetite of the fish.
Feeding management is one of the requirements of a successful cultivation process. Appropriate feeding and feed efficiency is very influential on optimal process of fish growth. The feeding frequency is influenced by several factors, the age, type and appetite of the fish. Basically the three factors are interconnected. The younger the fish, the more often the feed is given. It is related to gastric emptying time.
The feed for grouper seeds should always be in the maintenance container (adlibitum). Commercial food is given in the range of 1-2 hours to prevent cannibalism. The fourth critical phase, often results in death due to metamorphosed seeds, the formation of color pigments in grouper seeds. This metamorphosis causes grouper seeds to require better quality nutritional feed. Nutritional deficiencies can cause the grouper seed growth inhibition.
Based on the description above, it is necessary to do research on feeding frequency (3,4,5,6 times / day) on growth, feed efficiency and FCR. The results showed that the treatment of feeding 5 times / day can increase growth by 4.2%; feed efficiency of 67% and the minimum FCR at 1.55%. In other treatments the growth results ranged from 3.3 to 3.8%; efficiency ranges from 46-51% and FCR values range from 1.99-2.26%. This is related to the length of the digestive tract and the time of emptying the gastric contents of hybrid grouper seeds.
The size of the digestive tract of fish in the seed stage is still short, causing a faster digestion rate. Growth rate is related to the amount of feed given and the capacity of stomach contents. The amount of feed in accordance with the capacity of the stomach and the rate of emptying the stomach or in accordance with the time the fish need to be fed, it needs to be considered because at that time the fish was hungry.
A lower FCR value indicates that the feed is well utilized in the body of the fish for better growth, while a higher feed conversion value indicates that the feed given for fish growth is not effective. The lower the feed conversion value the better because the amount of feed spent to produce a certain weight. A high FCR value indicates that the feed used is less efficient and causes high production costs.
Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that the hybrid grouper fish farmers should use feed the fish 5 times / day to get good growth results in aquaculture.
Author: Lailatul Lutfiyah
Details of this research available at:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/441/1/012078
