Impact of Feeding level on Growth, Gut Health, and Microbiome in Juvenile Red-Tail Catfish (Hemibagrus wyckioides): Insights from Metabolomics and Microbial Analysis

The red-tail catfish (Hemibagrus wyckioides) belongs to the order Siluriformes and the family Bagridae. It is an indigenous fish species of Yunnan Province, known for its tender flesh, delicious taste, absence of intermuscular bones, and high protein content. It is currently an important economic aquaculture species under develop-ment [1]. There is currently a debate on H. wyckioides research focuses on nutrition, genetics, breeding, and farming patterns. The addition of 2.3% lysine in the diet sig-nificantly enhanced protein metabolism and antioxidant levels in juvenile H.wyckioides [2], the substitution of 30% soybean meal in the diet of H. wyckioides juvenile fish for fishmeal significantly improved daily growth rate and growth per-formance [3], cottonseed meal is an effective plant protein source to replace fish-meal, which can significantly reduce costs and improve growth rate, protein metabo-lism, and antioxidant capacity. The optimal lipid level for H.wyckioides diets has been determined [4].