Abstract:A 30-day feeding trial was conducted to determine the effects of feeding stimulants in the diets containing soybean meal on feed intake and growth of Sebastes schlegeli. Six isonitrogenous( 50.4% crude protein) and isocaloric(20.6 kJ/g) diets were formulated. The control diet(FM) contained 70% fish meal as the sole protein source. In the other five diets(SBM), 30% fish meal protein was replaced by soybean meal protein ,which upplemented without feeding stimulants or with 0.3% commercial feeding attractant , dimethyl-β-propiothetin (DMPT), betaine, citric acid respectively. The experiment was conducted in triplicates in 100-l indoor flow-through conical tanks at 20±1℃ and 32‰ salinity. The fish with initial body weight(49.83±0.17g) were fed to apparent satiation twice daily(08∶00,16∶00).At the end of the feeding trial, the survival rate were not significantly different among dietary treatments (P>0.05).The fish fed SBM without supplemental feeding stimulants exhibited significantly lower feed intake (FI, P<0.05) than the fish fed FM . However，the FI of fish fed SBM diets with DMPT, betaine and citric acid were not significantly different from that in control(P>0.05). The specific growth rate(SGR), feed efficiency ratio(FER) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) of fish fed SBM with betaine and citric acid were significantly higher than that in group of SBM diets without feeding stimulants(P<0.05). The fish fed SBM diets showed significantly lower hepatosomatic index than the fish fed FM diets. The whole body moisture, protein, lipid and energy were not significantly affected by the feeding stimulants (P>0.05).The ash in fed SBM diets with commercial attractant and betaine were significantly lower than that in other groups (P<0.05).The fish fed SBM diets with betaine and citric acid showed significantly higher activities of trypsin in liver and intestine than the fish fed SBM diets without supplemental feeding stimulants (P<0.05).The results indicate that 0.3% betaine or citric acid added to the SBM diet( SBM protein replace 30% FM protein) can improve feed intake and growth response of Sebastes schlegeli.
