Effect of varying dietary enzyme inclusion levels on the growth performance of Florida Pompano (Trachinotus Carolinus)

Abstract

Florida pompano (Trachinotus carolinus) is a marine fish that has shown a lot of promise for aquaculture because of its fast growth, high market value, and ability to grow in a wide range of salinities. With plant-based ingredients becoming more common in fish feeds, exogenous enzymes have been receiving more attention to help fish get more out of these diets. In this study, we tested two enzymes individually. Protease (AG175™) breaks down dietary proteins and helps deal with antinutritional factors, and xylanase (Econase® XT25) targets arabinoxylan, a fiber found in soybean meal and wheat that pompano cannot digest on their own. Each enzyme was added at three different levels to soybean meal-based diets, giving us seven diets in Trial 1 and five in Trial 2. We did not see any statistically significant differences in growth, FCR, or whole-body composition in either of the two trials. However, fish fed xylanase diets did numerically better in final weight and FCR in Trial 1, and in Trial 2, we started to see a trend toward better protein digestibility with xylanase. Even without statistical significance, fish on enzyme-supplemented diets generally did better than those on the basal diet. We think a big part of why we did not see stronger results has to do with how much Xylan substrate was available in the diets, and future studies should try higher inclusions of Xylan-rich ingredients to get a better sense of what these enzymes can really do for Florida pompano.