Matabolism of Amino Acids in Aquatic Animals—III: Indispensable Amino Acids for Tilapia zillii

The indispensable amino acids for Tilapia (Tilapia zillii) are reported. Fingerlings were fed with experimental diets deficient in a single amino acid for a period of eight weeks. Growth rates with these diets were compared with that obtained with the basal ration. According to the results, argimne, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine were found to be essential for normal growth of Tilapia. In contrast, tyrosine, glycine, alanine, aspartic acid, cystine, glutamic acid, proline, and serine were found to be non-essential for normal growth. It was thus evident that Tilapia requires the same ten amino acids reported to be essential for other fishes. The fish showed better growth with casein diet. © 1978, The Japanese Society of Fisheries Science. All rights reserved