R. B. McGeachin

Growth and food conversion patterns of Tilapia aurea raised in aquaria and fed diets containing 10% lipid from 4 different sources showed that growth and food conversion were significantly better on menhaden oil than on beef tallow. No significant differences were detected in growth of tilapia on catfish oil or soybean oil and either beef tallow or menhaden oil. No mortalities occurred during the course of the lO-week feeding trial. T. aurea responded similarly to channel catfish with respect to their ability to utilize menhaden oil as a suitable source of dietary lipid. Tilapia did not...

Tilapia aurea fingerlings were fed semipurified diets differing only in the degree of saturation in the lipid component (soybean oil). Growth improved significantly as degree of unsaturation in dietary lipid increased. All fish became depleted in high (> 18 carbon atom) molecular weight polyunsaturated fatty acids during the course of the study. This may indicate that desaturation and elongation of such dietary fatty acids as linoleic and linolenic acid either did not occur or was so slow that such fatty acids as 20:5n-3, 22:5n-3 and 22:6n-3 were metabolized before appearing in the...