Dietary Inclusion of Distillers Dried Grain for Growth of Juvenile Abalone Haliotis discus hannai

A feeding experiment was conducted to determine the effect of dietary distillers dried grain (DDG) on the growth and body composition of juvenile abalone, Haliotis discus hannai. Three diets were formulated to contain 0% (DDG0), 30% DDG (DDG1) replacing wheat flour and 30% DDG (DDG2) replacing fish meal and wheat flour. A commercial feed (CF) was also compared with experimental diets. Three replicate groups of abalone averaging 0.6 ± 0.01 g were fed one of the four diets for 14 weeks. The highest survival rate was observed in the abalone fed the DDG2 diet, which was higher than that of abalone fed the DDG0 diet. Weight gain, shell length, shell width and soft body weight of the abalone were not affected by dietary DDG and CF diet (P > 0.05). Proximate and amino acid composition of the soft whole body were not affected by dietary DDG and CF diet (P > 0.05). The result of this experiment suggests that DDG is a good ingredient to replace fish meal and wheat flour in the diet and could be used up to 30% in the diet without negative effects on the growth performance of juvenile abalone Haliotis discus hannai.