Replacement of Dietary Fishmeal by Black Soldier Fly Larvae (Hermetia illucens) Meal in Practical Diets for Juvenile Tench (Tinca tinca)
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript entitled “Replacement of dietary fish meal by black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) meal in practical diets for juvenile tench (Tinca tinca L.)” provides some essential data for aquaculture research. However, the optimal replacement level in the current study should be calculated by some mathematic tools such as broken-line analysis or polynomial regression equation; between key growth or feed utilization parameters and replacement level. By this way, the Abstract, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion sections should be re-written. Therefore, based on my observations, the writing and the presentation of this manuscript against publication of article in its current form. Some comments of this manuscript are listed below.
Comments
1. The feed ingredient from this manuscript is black soldier fly larvae, not black soldier fly (adult). Please carefully correct this term throughout the manuscript.
2. Scientific names must be italicized. Make sure that complete scientific names of species are given on first mention, and check that the spellings are correct. The presentation of scientific names throughout the manuscript is inconsistent; for example, why is the authority (such as Tinca tinca L.) and/or year (such as Tinca tinca Linnaeus, 1758) only given for some species and not others, why are some common names and scientific names concurrently given whereas others are not? and why are some fish given scientific names only? The complete scientific name of species must be used first and then abbreviate generic name in the other places.
3. Please remove keywords that are already included in the title. You may add further keywords to replace the ones removed if you wish. In this journal, three to ten pertinent keywords need to be added, so that please add more keywords. Generally, keywords should contain words and phrases that suggest what the topic is about. Also include words and phrases that are closely related to your topic. Also use variant terms or phrases that readers are likely to use. The full forms of shortened words and abbreviations should be included as well.
4. No consistency in using the words ‘Fish meal’ or ‘Fishmeal’ and ‘Whole body’ or ‘Whole-body’
5. Replace ‘r2’ by ‘r2’
6. There are several errors relating to the use of table grids, spelling, capital/lowercase letters, italics, units, symbols, decimal points, brackets, and scientific names. Please check throughout the manuscript.
7. Please present numerical data throughout the manuscript to 3 significant figures, e.g., 1.23, 12.3, 123, 1230. In addition, authors should correct the presentation of data in SI units, so that replace ‘%’ by ‘g kg-1’ throughout the manuscript.
8. Table 1 should be deleted since it is appropriate to explain by text in the Introduction or Discussion section.
9. On L111, correct as ‘was weighed’
10. Replace zero data in Table 2 by ‘nd (not detected)’ and summarize amino acids as essential amino acids (ƩEAA), non-essential amino acids (ƩNEAA), and ƩEAA/NEAA (as well as in Table 5)
11. Add superscript ‘10’ for ‘Mineral and vitamin premix’ in Table 3
12. Tables 3 and 4 should be combined together.
13. The description on L165-166 should be ‘Nitrogen-free extract’, not ‘Carbohydrate’.
14. Please describe how to estimate amounts of eaten and uneaten diets for calculating FCR
15. L197-200, this part should be explained in Materials and Methods.
16. Data presentation in Table 4 should be expressed as means.
17. L232-234, the description was not supported by p-value.
18. The Results section should be divided by a few headings.
19. Define and explain all acronyms and abbreviations on first mention in the text
20. Conclusion part should be able to stand alone, so that full words of each abbreviated term should be added.
21. Try to reduce the number of unnecessary references. The reference lists were not well checked and contain many errors. The errors found such as capital/lowercase letters and scientific names (must be italicized) in the article titles, and full/abbreviated names of journals.
Author Response
First of all I want to thank you for your review which haave made possible to improve our MS.
The manuscript entitled “Replacement of dietary fish meal by black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) meal in practical diets for juvenile tench (Tinca tinca L.)” provides some essential data for aquaculture research. However, the optimal replacement level in the current study should be calculated by some mathematic tools such as broken-line analysis or polynomial regression equation; between key growth or feed utilization parameters and replacement level. By this way, the Abstract, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion sections should be re-written. Therefore, based on my observations, the writing and the presentation of this manuscript against publication of article in its current form.
From polynomial analysis, we detected a cubic relationship or regression between the independent variable (FM replacement) and the growth dependent variables. Optimal levels of FM replacement were calculated from the regression equations. The corresponding data were included in the abstract, results and discussion. The regression curves for TL and W and the corresponding equations were included in the results section.
Some comments of this manuscript are listed below.
Comments
1.The feed ingredient from this manuscript is black soldier fly larvae, not black soldier fly (adult). Please carefully correct this term throughout the manuscript.
The name, black soldier fly larvae meal, and abbreviation, BSFLM, were changed throughout the manuscript
2. Scientific names must be italicized. Make sure that complete scientific names of species are given on first mention, and check that the spellings are correct. The presentation of scientific names throughout the manuscript is inconsistent; for example, why is the authority (such as Tinca tinca L.) and/or year (such as Tinca tinca Linnaeus, 1758) only given for some species and not others, why are some common names and scientific names concurrently given whereas others are not? and why are some fish given scientific names only? The complete scientific name of species must be used first and then abbreviate generic name in the other places.
We have the suggested change.
3. Please remove keywords that are already included in the title. You may add further keywords to replace the ones removed if you wish. In this journal, three to ten pertinent keywords need to be added, so that please add more keywords. Generally, keywords should contain words and phrases that suggest what the topic is about. Also include words and phrases that are closely related to your topic. Also use variant terms or phrases that readers are likely to use. The full forms of shortened words and abbreviations should be included as well.
We have removed the keywords included in the title and, following your suggestion, new keywords were added.
4. No consistency in using the words ‘Fish meal’ or ‘Fishmeal’ and ‘Whole body’ or ‘Whole-body’
We used fishmeal and whole-body throughout the manuscript
5.Replace ‘r2’ by ‘r2’
It was replaced
6. There are several errors relating to the use of table grids, spelling, capital/lowercase letters, italics, units, symbols, decimal points, brackets, and scientific names. Please check throughout the manuscript.
We have checked carefully the mentioned errors
7. Please present numerical data throughout the manuscript to 3 significant figures, e.g., 1.23, 12.3, 123, 1230. In addition, authors should correct the presentation of data in SI units, so that replace ‘%’ by ‘g kg-1’ throughout the manuscript.
The suggested changes were made.
8. Table 1 should be deleted since it is appropriate to explain by text in the Introduction or Discussion section.
Table 1 aimed to give summarized results to make easily available recent information of the use of BSFLM in fishes to readers. Considering the number of studies included, it is difficult have a proper mention in the introduction. With respect to Discussion, we have only used the references dealing with the main aspects considered in this section. For this reason, we have maintained the Table in the revised MS. However, if the reviewer disagree with this Table will be removed.
9 On L111, correct as ‘was weighed’
The correction was made
10. Replace zero data in Table 2 by ‘nd (not detected)’ and summarize amino acids as essential amino acids (ƩEAA), non-essential amino acids (ƩNEAA), and ƩEAA/NEAA (as well as in Table 5)
We have made the suggested changes in Table 2 and table 5
11. Add superscript ‘10’ for ‘Mineral and vitamin premix’ in Table 3
The superscript was added
- Tables 3 and 4 should be combined together.
Tables 3 and 4 were combined. also Table 8 and 9 were combined
The description on L165-166 should be ‘Nitrogen-free extract’, not ‘Carbohydrate’.
The correction was made
- Please describe how to estimate amounts of eaten and uneaten diets for calculating FCR
As it was described in the text following Fornshell and Hinshaw (2008), we estimated FCR as dry feed fed tank-1 x (weight gain/ tank)-1considering the amount of food provided in each. So that, there were not estimated the amounts of eaten and uneaten food. Although we are aware that it is not the most appropriate method, it provides an useful information.
- L197-200, this part should be explained in Materials and Methods.
The paragraph was moved to M&M section
Data presentation in Table 4 should be expressed as means.
Following the same model as other tables SD values were included
- L232-234, the description was not supported by p-value.
Superscripts for TL and W of juvenile fed 45%, 60% and 75%FM replacement were c, bc and abc, respectively so there were no significant differences between the three treatments.
18. The Results section should be divided by a few headings.
Headings were included in the results section.
19. Define and explain all acronyms and abbreviations on first mention in the text
The suggested change was made.
- Conclusion part should be able to stand alone, so that full words of each abbreviated term should be added.
The suggested change was made.
- Try to reduce the number of unnecessary references. The reference lists were not well checked and contain many errors. The errors found such as capital/lowercase letters and scientific names (must be italicized) in the article titles, and full/abbreviated names of journals.
Reference list was checked and corrected.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The study of Carral and Sáez-Royuela evaluated the effect of increasing levels of Fiahmeal replacement with black soldier fly on growth performance, proximate body composition, and amino acid content.
The study is well-designed and performed, meanwhile, the manuscript needs extensive improvement to be accepted for publication, especially in the presentation methods and language clarity.
Rewrite the first sentence is very long and contains several English errors (rephrasing and proofreading).
Line 8 italicize the Latin names (consider along the manuscript).
L 30-33: another long sentence.
L43: change aquaculture to aquatic diets.
L66 affected to growth, remove to
L 72: add a comma before such as
In table 1 header, mentioned the full name of the fishmeal with an abbreviation in the first table, then you can abbreviate it in the other tables.
In table 1 correct the reference format.
L 83: not suitable hock. It can be started as “Regarding to the effect of FM replacement with BSFM on fish body composition, several studies concluded that …….., meanwhile, others reported a significant increase of …………….
The aim is hard to read another suggested sentence: “According to the best of our knowledge, there is no studies reported the effect of replacing FM with BSFM in the diet of juvenile tench, therefor the present study aimed to evaluate the effects of increasing substitution levels of FM with BSFM on ………………”
In the header of table 2, the analysis of FM and BSFM is not on wet basis. So, delete “wet basis” also delete it form table 3, 4, and 6.
Could you mention the initial weight of fish in section 2.2. also is it fry of juvenile.
L 140: how did you confirm apparent satiation.
Correct the table 3 header and remove “proximate composition”.
L 203: add “of” before “practical diets”.
In the used formal to calculate growth replace the symbol of x by /.
Add separate subtitle to the statistical analysis.
What is the importance of table 6, this is a data redundant it can be deleted or replaced with time series figure for growth change over time.
In the footnote of table 6, delete the formulas also no need to abbreviate length and weight, mention it in full length in the table.
Could you interpret linear negative regression of whole-body lipid content with inclusion of BSFM increased. Whereas the diet lipids increased with increasing BSFM inclusion.
In table 8 and 9, what did you mean “FO replacement”.
In all table could you unify the number of decimal.
L 358 correct this sentence the word “replaced” are missing.
Author Response
Rewrite the first sentence is very long and contains several English errors (rephrasing and proofreading).
We have rewrited the first sentence of abstract
Line 8 italicize the Latin names (consider along the manuscript).
The suggested change was made.
L43: change aquaculture to aquatic diets.
The suggested change was made.
L66 affected to growth, remove to
The suggested change was made.
L 72: add a comma before such as
The suggested change was made.
In table 1 header, mentioned the full name of the fishmeal with an abbreviation in the first table, then you can abbreviate it in the other tables.
The suggested change was made
In table 1 correct the reference format.
The format was corrected
L 83: not suitable hock. It can be started as “Regarding to the effect of FM replacement with BSFLM on fish body composition, several studies concluded that …….., meanwhile, others reported a significant increase of …………….
Thanks for your suggestion. We have included the text proposed
The aim is hard to read another suggested sentence: “According to the best of our knowledge, there is no studies reported the effect of replacing FM with BSFM in the diet of juvenile tench, therefor the present study aimed to evaluate the effects of increasing substitution levels of FM with BSFLM on ………………”
Again, thanks for your suggestion. We have included the text proposed
In the header of table 2, the analysis of FM and BSFLM is not on wet basis. So, delete “wet basis” also delete it form table 3, 4, and 6.
The suggested change was made
L 140: how did you confirm apparent satiation.
Food was adjusted to consumption, so we confirm satiation when small amount of the diet provided was uneaten.
Correct the table 3 header and remove “proximate composition”.
The correction was made.
L 203: add “of” before “practical diets”.
The suggested change was made.
In the used formal to calculate growth replace the symbol of x by /.
Changes were made
Add separate subtitle to the statistical analysis.
Another subtitle was included.
What is the importance of table 6, this is a data redundant it can be deleted or replaced with time series figure for growth change over time.
Table 6 was deleted
In the footnote of table 6, delete the formulas also no need to abbreviate length and weight, mention it in full length in the table.
Table 6 was deleted
Could you interpret linear negative regression of whole-body lipid content with inclusion of BSFM increased. Whereas the diet lipids increased with increasing BSFM inclusion.
This interpretation is included in the discussion: “Despite the defatting process, the lipid content of BSFM was higher than in FM, determining an increase of fat in diets from 107.5 g kg-1 (control diet) to 123 g kg-1 (75%BSFM diet). The increase of lipid content in diets is usually correlated with an increase in fish body fat [73,74] but, in opposite to this statement and similarly to the reported in turbot [23] and the Jian carp [54,55], whole-body tench lipid content decreased with the increase of dietary BSFM. Kroeckel et al [23] and Li et al [54] hypothesized that this fact could be related to a reduction of lipid digestibility due to content of chitin provided by the insect meal. In agreement with Ferrer-Llagostera et al [75], the information on the effects of chitin are still discussed and further research is required to clarify its role in aquatic species”.
In table 8 and 9, what did you mean “FO replacement”.
The mistake was corrected
In all table could you unify the number of decimal.
The number of decimals was unified
L 358 correct this sentence the word “replaced” are missing.
The word was included
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
1. In abstract, correct scientific name in italics
2. Errors in significant figures (e.g., 1.23, 12.3, 123, 1230) were still found throughout the manuscript (text, tables, and figures).
3. The keywords are still inappropriate. The suitable keywords such as alternative protein source; doctor fish; essential amino acid; growth performance; insect meal; protein replacement; T. tinca; whole-body composition.
4. The reference lists were not well checked and contain many errors. The errors found such as capital/lowercase letters and scientific names (must be italicized) in the article titles, and full/abbreviated names of journals.
Author Response
- In abstract, correct scientific name in italics
The correction was made
- Errors in significant figures (e.g., 1.23, 12.3, 123, 1230) were still found throughout the manuscript (text, tables, and figures).
We have made the corrections following your advice. Only, values of proximate composition of diets were maintained in order to sum 1000 g kg-1
- The keywords are still inappropriate. The suitable keywords such as alternative protein source; doctor fish; essential amino acid; growth performance; insect meal; protein replacement; T. tinca; whole-body composition.
The suggested keywords were included.
- The reference lists were not well checked and contain many errors. The errors found such as capital/lowercase letters and scientific names (must be italicized) in the article titles, and full/abbreviated names of journals
List of references was carefully checked to avoid the mentioned errors.
Reviewer 2 Report
The used fish is larvae not juvenile (lines 107-108) please check along the manuscript.
Relocated this sentence “Values of 30.69 ± 0.28 mm and 0.39 ± 0.02 g (mean ± SEM)” in line 113.
In table 1 I mean correct the Ref. Style to numeric form “Kroeckel et al. (2012) [23]” to “Kroeckel et al. [23]”, remove the years.
In line 161: replace the symbol “;” with “:” such as “50000; thiamine” to “50000: thiamine”.
L 192-196: Use the formula style of MDPI.
Add separate subtitle to the statistical analysis, the author mentioned that they add subtitle but they are not.
Author Response
The used fish is larvae not juvenile (lines 107-108) please check along the manuscript.
The term larvae is commonly used from tench from hatching until the first month of life, afterthat, tench are named juveniles. Many references of this can be found in the scientific literature.
Relocated this sentence “Values of 30.69 ± 0.28 mm and 0.39 ± 0.02 g (mean ± SEM)” in line 113.
The sentence was relocated
In table 1 I mean correct the Ref. Style to numeric form “Kroeckel et al. (2012) [23]” to “Kroeckel et al. [23]”, remove the years.
The year of publication was removed from all references in Table 1.
In line 161: replace the symbol “;” with “:” such as “50000; thiamine” to “50000: thiamine”.
Symbols were replaced.
L 192-196: Use the formula style of MDPI.
Formula style was modified accordingly recent MS published in the journal Fishes.
