Utilization of local feeds resources and available agricultural residues from the Palestinian region for tilapia feeding

Tilipia aquaculture is a viable alternative to overcome the shortage of fish in Palestine and to reduce its price on the market. A feeding experiment was conducted to test the nutritional quality of locally available feed resources and ingredients as tilapia feeds. Three diets were formulated using locally available feeds/ingredients from Palestinian mills. An 8-week feeding trial was conducted using these in a warm water recirculation system at ~28°C. The ingredients tested are currently used for feeding local domestic animals. Growth rate (GR) and specific growth rate (SGR) were low but this could be improved at a reasonable cost. No mortality was observed during the study period. It can be concluded that more expensive and limited animal protein sources can be replaced by cheaper locally available feed resources. Possible ideas for feed formulation with increased protein content are proposed. Availability of nutritionally adequate feeds with a reasonable cost would stimulate Nile tilapia culture in west bank areas. Aquaculture would be a welcome new economic activity in these regions.