The Cricket (Gryllus assimilis) as an Alternative Food Versus Commercial Concentrate for Tilapia (Oreochromis sp.) in the Nursery Stage

In this paper, a 32% commercial diet of protein for tilapia fingerlings (Oreochromis sp.) commonly used in fish farms in the country and cricket meal in a mixture with 32% corn flour as a protein was compared alternative food The breeding, raising and fattening unit of crickets (Gryllus assimilis) was implemented for its subsequent sacrifice and transformation into flour and used as a source of protein in the diet, these gained a weight of 0.70 g. To accommodate the fry, plastic tanks with a capacity of 1 m3 were used, the water was sucked by means of an electric pump; with permanent aeration where 15 individuals of red tilapia per m3 were planted with an average weight of 5 g which reached an average weight/fish/day of 26 g, a growth/fish/day of 0.86 g, the total biomass was 340 g, and a feed conversion factor (FCA) of 1.16. According to the Student’s T analysis and a comparison of means, no differences were found, with a correlation of 83.1% between the food supplied and the increase in weight, the water parameters were found at an optimum level. The protein percentage of cricket flour ranges between 15% and 80% depending on the geographical area, those that were used in the local ration have 58.16% of crude protein and 9.32 of protein nitrogen, the two rations in comparison had a protein content of 32%.