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Coconut Oil and Beef Tallow, But Not Tricaprylin, Can Replace Menhaden Oil in the Diet of Red Drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) without Adversely Affecting Growth or Fatty Acid Composition^1,2,3,

Steven R. Craig^* and Delbert M. Gatlin, III^*,,4

^* Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Faculty of Nutrition, Texas A&M University System, College Station, TX 77843

The ability of juvenile red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) to utilize medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) and other saturated dietary lipids was investigated in two 6-wk feeding experiments. Diets contained solvent-extracted menhaden fish meal to which menhaden fish oil (control), coconut oil, corn oil, beef tallow or various levels of MCT as tricaprylin (30, 46, 65 and 80% of total lipid) were added. Diets were fed to triplicate groups of juvenile red drum in aquaria containing brackish (6) water. In the first feeding experiment, red drum fed the control diet had the greatest weight gains and feed efficiencies. Weight gain, but not feed efficiency, of fish fed corn oil and fish fed coconut oil was slightly (P < 0.05) lower. In the second feeding experiment, fish fed coconut oil and those fed beef tallow had significantly higher weight gains and feed efficiencies than did fish fed the control diet. Fish fed the diets containing tricaprylin at all inclusion levels in both feeding experiments had significantly lower weight gains and feed efficiencies and higher levels of ß-hydroxybutyric acid in plasma. Fish fed diets with high levels of MCT also had lower (n-3) and greater (n-6) fatty acid levels in the neutral lipid fraction of muscle tissue compared with fish fed the control diet. Coconut oil and beef tallow consistently resulted in greater liver lipid deposition but had variable effects on other tissue indices. Saturated dietary lipids had variable effects on fatty acid composition of muscle polar and neutral lipid fractions. As shown here, red drum cannot efficiently utilize tricaprylin for energy, and its inclusion at all levels tested resulted in inferior performance. However, red drum performed extremely well when fed saturated lipids such as coconut oil and beef tallow if their requirement for essential fatty acids was satisfied.

KEY WORDS: • red drum • Sciaenops ocellatus • lipid • tricaprylin • saturated lipids

¹ Supported in part by grant #NA89AA-D-5G139 from the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to the Texas Sea Grant College program. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of NOAA or any of its sub-agencies. This work also was supported by the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station under Project H-6556 (contribution TA no. 31791).

² The material in this article was derived from the Ph.D. dissertation by S. R. Craig (1994).

³ The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

⁴ To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Manuscript received 3 March 1995. Revision accepted 27 July 1995.