Abstract:
Feed formulation is a combination of different ingredients with variety of nutrients to
formulate a type of food that contains complete nutrient needed by living things. It is
to ensure that they receive enough nutrients for their healthy growth and survival. In
aquaculture field, major concerns among aquaculture nutrition researchers only focus
on the growth and survival of the fish but neglecting the cost of feed production. The
conventional method in formulating fish feed is often time-consuming, expensive
and species dependence. Early mathematics researchers had attempted to solve diet
formulation problem with mathematical modelling. Mathematical model is an
approach that can provide precise composition required in fish feed with aquaculture
knowledge as background, which can provide precise nutrient requirement depends
on specific species and minimizes the cost of operation when compared to the use of
commercial pellet. Early researchers have applied mathematical modelling in
formulating feed and took a long time to obtain a complete feed if hand-operated
desk calculators are used. Transition of modern era leads to highly sophisticated
computer systems that simplifies the complicated problem involved in feed
formulation problem. However, the research about application of mathematics
modelling in aqua feed especially for ornamental fish, which centred on reducing
feed production cost and alternative ingredients replacement are hard to be found in
Malaysia.
