The treatments consisted of five rations with different crude protein levels (32, 34, 36, 38 and 40%) and with a 9.5 DE/g of CP. The females were distributed in thirty tanks in a completely randomized design with five treatments and six replicates. The males were maintained in 10 tanks of the same dimensions, at a density of six fish per tank with two tanks per treatment and received the same diets as the females.