Abstract
This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of feeding higher protein feeds with lesser amount, but feeding the constant total protein input for all treatments, on water quality and nitrite toxicity in channel catfish ponds. There was no significant difference in survival rate among treatments $(P>0.05)$. Specific growth rate (SGR) for Treatment 1$(28\%\;protein\;and\;100\%\;of\;satiation)$ was significantly higher $(P>0.05)$ than for Treatment 3$(36\%\;protein\;and\;87.5\%\;of\;satiation)$, but not significantly higher than for Treatment 2 $(32\%\;protein\;and\;77.8\%\;of\;satiation)$ at constant digestible energy (DE), 3.08kcal/g (treatments 1, 2 and 3). At constant DE/P (treatments 4, 2 and 5), no significant difference in SGR was observed among treatments. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) slightly improved or improved as dietary protein level increased from $28\%$ to $32\%$ and feed allowance decreased by $12.5\%$, but did not improve as dietary protein level increased from $32\%$ to $36\%$ and feed allowance decreased by $22.2\%$, at constant DE and constant DE/P. There was no significant difference in water quality variables, such as total ammonia nitrogen (TAN), nitrite, chlorophyll a, soluble phosphorous concentrations among treatments, but significant difference in water quality variables over time as amount of feed fed increased $(P<0.0001)$. There was a trend toward increase in TAN and nitrite over time. A strong linear regression was observed between mean total ammonia nitrogen and nitrite for all treatments Y (Nitrite) =$0.04\times (TAN)+0.01$, $R_2=0.89$. Methemoglobin percent in the blood of catifish was not significantly different among treatments. And its mean value was $7.5\%$, which was relatively low, so that it was not serious problem in catfish production pond under these experiment conditions. There was the stronger linear regression between the percentage of Methemoglobin and the molar ratio of nitrite to chloride rather than nitrite alone: $Y\;(Methemoglobin\;\%)\;=\;58.45\;\times\;(NO^{2-}/Cl^-)\;+\;0.41,\;R^2=0.60$. These results indicate that deterioration of water quality has no strong impact on poor weight gain for $36\%$ dietary protein in this study.