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Dietary arginine requirement of juvenile red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) based on weight gain and feed efficiency.

Increasing aquacultural production of red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) has prompted the determination of many of this species' nutritional requirements. However, limited information is available concerning its amino acid requirements, especially for arginine. Therefore, a feeding trial was conducted with juvenile red drum to determine their quantitative dietary requirement for arginine. Experimental diets contained 35 g crude protein/100 g from red drum muscle and crystalline amino acids. Incremental levels of arginine were added to the diets in place of a mixture of glycine and aspartic acid to maintain all diets isonitrogenous. All diets were fed in triplicate to juvenile red drum for 7 wk. Graded levels of arginine significantly (P < 0.05) affected weight gain, feed efficiency, protein efficiency ratio (PER) and plasma arginine levels of the fish. Based on least-squares regression of feed efficiency and PER data, the minimum requirement (+/- SEM) of red drum for arginine was estimated at 1.44 (+/- 0.15) and 1.48 (+/- 0.12) g/100 g diet (4.11 and 4.23 g/100 g dietary protein), respectively. The arginine requirements estimated from weight gain data were 1.75 (+/- 0.18) g/100 g diet or 5.0 g/100 g dietary protein. These values are similar to those reported for other carnivorous fish species.