Effect of replacing fish meal with wheat gluten meal on growth, serum biochemical indexes and antioxidant enzyme activity of juvenile large yellow croaker (Larimichthys crocea)

A 56 d feeding experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of replacement of fish meal (FM) with wheat gluten meal (WGM) in diets on the growth, body composition, serum biochemical indexes and liver antioxidant ability of juvenile large yellow croaker, Larimichthys crocea initial weight (10.49±0.03)g. The basal diets were formulated by replacing 0% (FM), 25% (WGM25), 50% (WGM50), 75% (WGM75), 100% (WGM100) FM with WGM. The results showed that there were no significant differences in survival rate (SR), feed conversion ratio (FCR), hepatosomatic index (HSI), visceasomatic index (VSI) and condition factor (CF) among all diets; there were significant differences between the treatment and the control diets in the weight gain rate (WGR) and the specific growth rate (SGR). There were no significant differences in whole body crude protein, crude lipid, water and ash content. There were no significant differences in muscle crude protein, crude lipid and water content, but in muscle ash content, there were significant differences between WGM50, WGM75 diets and FM, WGM25, WGM100 diets. There were no significant differences in serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate amino-transferase (AST) content. For liver superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, it was significantly lower in WGM25, WGM100 diets than FM, WGM50 and WGM75 diets; for liver malondialdehyde (MDA) activity, it was significantly lower in WGM50 diet than FM, WGM25 and WGM100 diets; for liver catalase (CAT) activity, there were no significant differences; for liver glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity, it was significantly higher in WGM100 diet than the other diets. From what have been discussed above, we can conclude that replacing 100% FM with WGM is suitable for juvenile large yellow croaker, and would not affect the growth performance.