The utilization of corn gluten meal (CGM) as a substitute for fish meal (FM) in red sea bream Pagrus major diet was evaluated with yearlings and juveniles. Yearling fish weighing 280 g on average, and juvenile fish weighing 53 g on average, were fed diets containing 0-52% CGM (replacing 0-100% of FM) for 232 days and 40 days, respectively.
In yearling fish, growth perfomance was not affected by inclusion of up to 36% CGM, but it decreased with increase of CGM above 47%. Similar feed conversion was observed in the fish fed diets with less than 47% CGM to the control fish fed the CGM-free diet, but it was inferior in the fish fed a diet with 52% CGM and without FM. In juvenile fish, the growth and feed conversion together with feed intake were decreased with increase of CGM in diet, although they were not affected by the inclusion of 15% CGM. In both the fish, apparent protein digestibilities of the diets were not affected (90-95%) by CGM content in the diets.
These results indicate that FM in diet for red sea bream could be replaced up to 70% by the inclusion of 36% CGM in yearling fish, and could be replaced up to 30% by the inclusion of 15% CGM in juvenile fish, without supplementation of essential amino acids.