Growth, Muscle Nutrition Composition, and Digestive Enzyme Activities of the Juvenile and Adult Siniperca chuatsi Fed on Live Baits and a Formulated Diet

The present study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of a formulated diet to replace live baits as feed for Siniperca chuatsi. A 2 × 2 factorial design with three replicates was used to investigate the effects of conventional live baits (LB) and a formulated diet (FD) on the growth, muscle nutrition composition, and digestive enzyme activities of S. chuatsi at two growth stages. The results showed that the feed conversion ratio (FCR) in the FD group was significantly lower than that in the LB group. The final body weight (FBW) and weight gain (WG) were not significantly different between the two feeding modes. However, at the juvenile stage, the specific growth rate (SGR) in the FD group was significantly lower than that in the LB group. Muscle moisture, crude protein, and crude lipid contents were not influenced by dietary treatments. There were no significant differences in ∑EAA, ∑NEAA, and ∑AA compositions of the juvenile and adult stages fed the two kinds of diets. At the juvenile stage, histidine (His) content in the FD group was significantly higher than that in the LB group; at the adult stage, cysteine (Cys) content in the FD group was significantly higher than that in the LB group; at both growth stages, Met content in the FD group was significantly lower than that in the LB group. The FD group showed higher levels of ∑SFA, ∑HUFA, ∑n-3PUFA, n-3/n-6, EPA, and DHA than the LB group did, whilst the opposite occurred in the MUFA levels. In addition, fish fed with LB had significantly higher values of pepsin and intestinal trypsin activities in the juvenile fish compared to the FD group, but the activities were not significantly different between the two feeding modes at the adult stage. The activities of stomach and intestine amylase in the FD group were significantly higher than those in the LB group. Overall, these results showed that under long-term feeding conditions, S. chuatsi fed with the artificial diet had no significant difference in muscle crude protein, crude lipid, amino acid composition, and digestive capacity, but showed superiority in the composition of fatty acids such as EPA and DHA levels compared to the live baits group. Therefore, the artificially formulated diet might be a more appropriate feeding approach for sustainable development of the S. chuatsi industry.