Ž . Aquaculture 186 2000 293–310 www.elsevier.nlrlocateraqua-online Replacement of fish meal in diets for Australian silver perch, Bidyanus bidyanus: I. Digestibility of alternative ingredients Geoff L. Allan a, ) , Scott Parkinson a , Mark A. Booth a , David A.J. Stone a , Stuart J. Rowland b , Jane Frances a , Rebecca Warner-Smith a a NSW Fisheries, Port Stephens Research Station, Taylors Beach, NSW, 2316, Australia b NSW Fisheries, Grafton Research Centre, Locked Bag 3, Grafton, NSW, 2460, Australia Accepted 30 November 1999 Abstract Ž . Apparent digestibility coefficients ADCs for dry matter, nitrogen, energy and individual amino acids for 29 commonly used feed ingredients were determined for silver perch, a native Australian freshwater species currently being cultured in Australia, Taiwan and China. ADCs were determined using faeces collected following settlement. Results from 11 experiments are reported. Each experiment included a reference diet and test diets, which were composed of 69.3% Ž . reference diet, 29.7% test ingredient and 1% chromic oxide inert indicator . Ingredients tested included Australian, Danish and Peruvian fish meals, blood meal, meat and bone meals from beef Ž and lamb, poultry meal, feather meal, soybean and canola meals both expeller and solvent . extracted for each , full fat soybeans, peanut meal, cottonseed meal, linola, two species of lupins, field peas, faba beans, chick peas, vetch, cow peas, wheat gluten, corn gluten meal, two cultivars of wheat, millrun and sorghum. ADCs for dry matter, energy and nitrogen were highest for fish meal, although several other ingredients, including some animal meals and gluten from wheat and corn, had similar ADCs for dry matter and energy. Digestible protein from these ingredients was in the range 52–86% compared with 63–69% for fish meals. Silver perch were capable of digesting protein very effectively in almost all ingredients tested. Amino acid availability reflected nitrogen digestibility except for Peruvian fish meal and the two meat and bone meals, for which the availability of some amino acids was lower, possibly indicating protein damage during processing. Oilseeds and ) Corresponding author. Tel.: q61-249-821232; fax: q61-249-821107. Ž . E-mail address: allang@fisheries.nsw.gov.au G.L. Allan . 0044-8486r00r$ - see front matter q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Ž . PII: S0044-8486 99 00380-4