fa تخصصي Special پژوهشي Research <span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:82%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="TR" style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="line-height:82%"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">The Iranian cichlid, <i>Iranocichla hormuzensis</i> Coad, 1982, is an endemic cichlid of Southern Iran with potential value as a native ornamental and aquaculture species. This study evaluated the effects of dietary inclusion of dried meal of the brown seaweed <i>Sargassum ilicifolium</i>, collected from the Chabahar coastal area of the Gulf of Oman, on growth performance, feed utilization, somatic indices and whole-body composition of <i>I. hormuzensis</i>. Fish with an initial mean body weight of approximately 51 g were fed for 56 days with four experimental diets containing 0%, 5%, 10% or 15% <i>S. ilicifolium</i> meal. The diets were formulated to provide approximately similar crude-protein concentrations. Fish receiving the 5% seaweed diet showed the highest numerical final body weight, weight gain, relative weight gain, survival and protein efficiency ratio and the lowest numerical feed conversion ratio. However, according to the reported statistical results, differences among treatments in growth performance, survival and feed-utilization indices were not statistically significant (<i>p</i>>0.05). Hepatosomatic, viscerosomatic and gonadosomatic indices were also not significantly affected by dietary seaweed inclusion. Whole-body moisture, crude protein and crude lipid contents did not differ significantly among treatments, whereas a significant difference was reported for whole-body ash content. Overall, low-level inclusion of <i>S. ilicifolium</i> meal, particularly at 5%, appeared to be well tolerated by <i>I. hormuzensis</i> under the experimental conditions and produced the most favourable numerical growth response. However, the absence of statistically significant differences in most production variables does not support a definitive growth-promoting effect. The findings are consistent with the broader evidence that responses to dietary macroalgae are strongly dependent on fish species, seaweed species, inclusion level and diet formulation. Further experiments using clearly independent replicate tanks, digestibility measurements and characterization of mineral, contaminant and bioactive-compound profiles are required to establish the nutritional and functional value of <i>S. ilicifolium</i> for this endemic cichlid.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br> &nbsp; Iranocichla hormuzensis, Sargassum ilicifolium, Brown seaweed, Macroalgae, Dietary inclusion, Growth performance, Feed conversion ratio, Whole-Body composition, Ornamental fish, Aquaculture 65 78 http://anfsjournal.com/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-7&slc_lang=fa&sid=1 Sh. Dadgar 1003194753284600129 1003194753284600129 Yes Iranian Fisheries Science Research Institute (IFSRI), Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran R. Fallahi 1003194753284600130 1003194753284600130 No Iranian Fisheries Science Research Institute (IFSRI), Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran Sh. Masaeli 1003194753284600131 1003194753284600131 No Iranian Fisheries Science Research Institute (IFSRI), Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran M. Hafezieh 1003194753284600132 1003194753284600132 No Iranian Fisheries Science Research Institute (IFSRI), Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran