Although taurine supplementation allowed slightly, but not significantly higher growth at the level of 40% FM replacement with SBM, the economic benefits were actually reduced at the 40% level (with or without taurine) compared to the control. Thus, we cannot argue that taurine should be used in snakehead diets. Most previous studies on taurine supplementation in conjunctionwith plant protein replacement of FM have focused on marine fish species, such as P. olivaceus (Park et al., 2002), D. labrax (BrotonsMartinez et al., 2004), and Rachycentron
canadum (Lunger et al., 2007), although the freshwater rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss also benefited from taurine supplementation when they were fed an all-plant diet (Gaylord et al., 2006). Taurine is thought to be important for osmoregulation by marine fish, so perhaps the need for it by freshwater snakeheads in theMekong River and Delta
is not so critical physiologically.