The growth and histology structure of Indonesian eel (Anguilla bicolor bicolor McClelland, 1844) fed with microalgae

Indonesian eel (Anguilla bicolor bicolor) is important commodities, and the demand for fish availability in the global market was increasing drastically nowadays. To increase the growth rate of the fish, it is necessary to provide rich nutrition food contain for the fish during its cultivation. Microalgae such as Spirulina sp. and Chlorella vulgaris are rich content of protein, carbohydrates, and essential fatty acids. Which are important for the fish growth, but usually also affects the digestive system of fish, including its histological structure. Hence, research was needed to examine the effects of food composition, on the histological structure of the said organs. The objectives of this study were to examine the performance of fish food made of microalgae on growth and to examine the intestine histological structure of Indonesian eel. The completely randomized design was used in these study, which consists of four treatments group of P1 (Spirulina sp.), P2 (Chlorella vulgaris), P3 (fish flour), and P4 (commercial fish food: Takari), with three replications each. Elver eels were put as much as 15 into each treatment group and feed for two times a day, for 56 d. Morphometric analysis, fish weight, and histological structure of the intestine were used as the parameters of the research. Results showed that food treatment did not result in significant specific growth rate, absolute weight growth, and absolute length growth of the fish. However, we could observe the changes in intestine histological structure for different of intestinal villi length and number of goblet cell.