3 RESULTS
3.1 | Comparative analysis of digestive enzymes
activity
The feeding habits affected differently the digestive enzymes activities
of the four fish species in the hepatopancreas and intestine (p< .05; Table 1). The carnivorous fish (S. chuatsi ) had
higher trypsin and pancrelipase activities in the hepatopancreas and
enteropeptidase in the intestine than herbivorous (C. idella ),
omnivorous (C. auratus ) and the filter-feeder fish (S.
grahami ) (p < .05). Moreover, the filter-feeder fish
had higher trypsin and pancrelipase activities in the hepatopancreas but
lower entero-amylase in the intestine than the herbivorous and
omnivorous fishes (p < .05). The omnivorous fish had
significantly higher enteropeptidase activity in the intestine than
herbivorous and filter-feeder fishes (p < .05).
However, the herbivorous and omnivorous fish species had no significant
difference in trypsin and pancrelipase activities in the hapatopancreas
(p > .05). Similarly, the herbivorous and
filter-feeder fishes had no significant difference in enteropeptidase
activity in the intestine (p > .05).
Interestingly, the carnivorous fish (S. chuatsi ) had
significantly lower amylopsin activity in the hapatopancreas and
entero-amylase in the intestine than the herbivorous, omnivorous and
filter-feeder fishes (p < .05). Similarly, the
omnivorous fish had significantly lower amylopsin activity than
herbivorous and filter feeding fishes in the hepatopancreas (p< .05). The herbivorous and filter feeding fishes had no
significant difference in amylopsin activity in the hepatopancreas
(p > .05). Equally, herbivorous and filter-feeder
fishes had no significant difference in enteropeptidase in the intestine
(p > .05). The herbivorous and omnivorous had
significantly higher intestinal lipase activity than filter feeder and
carnivorous fish species (p < .05). Similarly, the
carnivorous fish had significantly higher intestinal lipase than the
filter-feeder fish (p < .05). The filter-feeder fish
had significantly lower entero-amylase activity than herbivorous and
omnivorous fishes in the intestine (p < .05). However,
the herbivorous and omnivorous fish species had no significant
differences in intestinal lipase and entero-amylase activities (p> .05).