| Summary: | Dietary protein requirements of abalone (Haliotis discus)
depending on abalone size were determined and compared. One thousand and fifty
small abalone (initial weight of 2.7 g) and five hundred forty large one
(initial weight of 16.0 g) were distributed into 15 and 18 containers in Trial 1
and 2, respectively. Five and six experimental diets containing crude protein
level from 20% to 40% and 20% to 45% with 5% increment of protein level for the
small and large abalone were prepared and referred to as the CP20, CP25, CP30,
CP35, CP40, and CP45 diets, respectively. The experimental diets were fed to
abalone for 16 weeks in Trials 1 and 2. Specific growth rate (SGR) of the small
abalone fed the CP20 diet was lower compared to that of abalone fed all other
diets in Trial 1. Growth performance (weight gain and SGR) of the large abalone
fed the CP30, CP35, and CP40 diets were greater than that of abalone fed the
CP20, CP25, and CP45 diets in Trial 2. Dietary protein requirements were
estimated to be 33.0% and 33.5% for the small and large abalone based on the
2nd order polynomial analysis, respectively. Dietary protein
requirements for the small abalone grown from 2.7 g to 7.4 g and the large one
grown from 16 g to 21 g were estimated to be 33.0% and 33.5%, respectively. Size
differences in abalone did not affect dietary protein requirement under this
experimental conditions.
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