Abstract:
Coconut residue, an agro-industrial by-product has limited use in fish feed due to its
high fibre and low protein contents. In this study, the coconut meal was fermented
by "tempe" (fermented soybean) which contains Rhizoporus oligosporus. The
objective of this study is to investigate the potential of fermentation in improving the
nutritional value of the coconut meal and to determine the optimum temperature for
coconut meal fermentation. Fermentation was conducted at three temperatures which
were 28 °C, 32 °C and 37
°
C. Packets that contain coconut meal were inoculated with
"tempe" to induce fermentation. The ratio of inoculation of "tempe" to coconut meal
is 1: I 0. The samples were collected everyday for proximate analysis until black
spores were formed on the substrates. Results revealed that the optimum temperature
for the fermenting coconut meal, in which its nutritional content is improved, is at 37
°
C. The crude protein and ash content of coconut meal were significantly increased
by fermentation from 5.05 % and 1.56 %, to 17.36 % and 2.22 % respectively.
