Nutrition of Salmonoid Fishes

Abstract

Twenty lots of 200 chinook salmon were adapted to and fed a purified diet containing 18 L-amino acids as the only source of protein. Amino acid-deficient diets were formed by dropping one amino acid from the basal ration and replacing it with an equal weight of α-cellulose flour. Growth on these diets was compared with that obtained with the basal ration. On the basis of the results obtained, the chinook salmon requires arginine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine for normal growth. No evidence was obtained for a partial biosynthesis of any of these componds. In contrast, alanine, aspartic acid, cystine, glycine, glutamic acid, proline, hydroxyproline, serine and tyrosine were not required for growth, and may be considered dispensable under the experimental conditions used.