INTESTINAL HISTOLOGY OF THE GROUPER Epinephelus lanceolatus fuscogutattus ADMINISTERED WITH SIMPLICIA PAPAYA

The grouper (Epinephelus sp) is a marine fish species that many people commercially cultivate, for hatchery and rearing, and showing such promising prospect. Fish intestine and growth histology are a function of internal and external conditions, namely water quality, feed quality and feed quantity. However, even though the protein content of its feed is high, the growth of the grouper, Epinephelus lanceolatus fuscogutattus is quite low. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of simplicia papaya on  the growth of the grouper particularly, absolute weight and the protein efficiency ratio. The research was conducted using Completely Randomized Design with 5 treatments and 3 replications (A: simplicia papaya 5% application, B: simplicia papaya 3.75% application, C: simplicia papaya 2.5% application, D: simplicia papaya 1.25% application, and E: 0% simplicia papaya). The groupers were cultivated in a floating net cage in Pangandaran Regency, Indonesia. The addition of simplicia papaya at 3.75% and 55% to the grouper’s artificial feed had influenced the number of necrotic cells at 169 and 183 cells, respectively, and so were the number of goblet cells. The addition of simplicia papaya at 5%, 3.75% and 2.5% of the grouper’s artificial feed had increased the absolute weight gain by 161.36 grams, 152.19 grams, 152.09 grams, respectively. The addition of simplicia papaya at 5%, and 3.75% of the grouper’s artificial feed increased the protein efficiency ratio by 3.18% and 3.19%, respectively.