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Tilapia Feed Formulation and Feeding Technique,Tilapia farming,Tilapia fish feed,fish feed formulation,extruded fish feed,fish feeding technique.

There are different species of Tilapia in different growth periods, so their demands for feed nutrients will be slightly different. The suitable protein content for Nile Tilapia fingerlings is around 35%-40%, and for Tialpia of above 50g, the protein required is about 20%-25%. For Blue Tilapia fingerlings, the suitable protein content is 36% and 26%-36% for adult fish. Generally speaking, the crude protein in Tilapia feed need to be above 25%. In intensive aquaculture, there are more nutrient requirements for Tilapia in the following chart.

For fish farming in pond, natural bait makings resources can satisfy Tilapia’s demand for Vitamin. In intensive farming, the amount of Vitamin addition in Tilapia farming is half of that of Carp farming.

Oil cake is regarded as good feed for fish farming, including soybean meal, rape seed meal, cotton seed meal and so on. These oil cakes contain high content of protein, but anti-nutrients in them are bad for fish growth. Due to urease, antitrypsin and etc. in soybean meal, it would be better to use soybean meal in cooked condition. Because of toxic free gossypol in cotton seed meal, it is often used mixing with bran chaff. Please notice that above 50% cotton seed meal in fish feed formulation will influence Tilapia reproduction.
3. Amphibious plant feed
The amphibious plants are the favorite food of Tilapia fingerlings and adult Tilapia, like lemna minor, soirodela polyrhiza, wolffia arrhiza. Some aquatic plants like water lettuce, water hyacinth or alligator are also good feed for Tilapia. Making feed by them, farmers just need to directly cut them into pieces or mix them into compound feed after cutting. Microcystis and Cyanophyceae are easy to digest to both Tilapia fingerlings and adult Tilapia.
4. Pomace feed and Cereal feed
Pomace feed can be treated as Tilapia feed. Cereal feed refers to malt, rice sprout as feed.
5. Animal feed
Animal feed are mainly used as the raw materials of compound feed, not appropriate to use them alone as feed.
These animal feed including fish meal, blood meal, meat and bone meal, are generally featured with higher protein content than oil cake. They are easy to digest, and rich in lysine that plant feed lacks.
6. Compound feed
Compound feed is widely applied in Tilapia farming in the world. Compound fish feed can be made depending on the following factors: feed sources, Tilapia nutrient requirements and raw material nutrient content. Whether in pond farming or in intensive farming, the addition of mineral salts is of importance for making fish feed.

III. Compound Feed of Tilapia

Generally the compound feed of Tilapia are in two types: pelleted feed and extruded feed.
To produce pelleted feed, the conditioning temperature should be controlled between 80-95℃. With sufficient conditioning period, good gelatinization can be achieved. And then pelleted feed produced are characterized with long term stability in water and smooth appearance.
To produce extruded feed, super micro-grinding equipment with above 80% 80 mesh need to be employed to produce perfect extruded feed. Furthermore, there are less wear on the extruder in feed production procedure to prolong its service life.
Whether pelleted feed or extruded feed, the pellet diameter is basically around 1.5-5.0mm. Being used in different growth periods, fish feeds are usually named fingerling feed, adult fish feed and etc.. In general, the price of extruded feed is higher than that of pelleted feed, but the breeding efficiency of extruded feed is prior to that of pelleted feed.