Three hundred and ninety six reverted Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), from Thailand strain, averaging initial weight of 0.86 ± 0.02 g were used to evaluate the effect of feeding methionine plus cystine:lysine levels, based on the ideal protein concept, with deficient levels of digestible lysine (1.40%). The experiment was analyzed as a completely randomized design, with six treatments, six replications by treatment and 11 fishes for experimental unit. The treatments consisted of five diets with different ratios of digestible methionine + cystine:lysine (59.5, 63.5, 67.5, 71.5 and 75.5%) and digestible threonine:lysine ratio of 80.0%; and one diet with the digestible methionine plus cystine:lysine ratio of 75.5% and threonine: digestible lysine ratio of 85.0%, all isoenitrogenous and isoprotein. The fishes were fed ad libitum six daily meals during 40 days. Performance parameters, body composition, body protein and fat deposition and nitrogen retention efficiency were evaluated. The increasing dietary digestible methionine plus cystine:lysine ratio did not affect the studied parameters, except for the body fat and humidity content, that showed quadratic effect, with quadratic maximum and minimum at 67.0 and 66.7%, respectively. However, it was observed treatment effect (75.5%) on feed:gain ratio, nitrogen retention efficiency and protein and lysine efficiency for growth. It was concluded that the total or digestible dietary sulfur amino acid level of 0.91 and 0.86%, that correspond to a total and digestible methionine plus cystine:lysine ratio of 57.2 and 59.5%, respectively, provided the best results of performance and carcass characteristics of Nile tilapia fingerlings.
digestible amino acids; digestible methionine plus cystine; Oreochromis niloticus; protein nutrition; synthetic amino acids
