Dietary Methionine Requirements of Pacific White Shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei, of Three Different Sizes

Abstract

Three feeding trials were conducted to determine the dietary methionine requirements for Litopenaeus vannamei of three different sizes, small (0.55±0.01g), medium (4.18±0.05g), and large (9.77±0.08g). Seven diets were formulated with seven different levels of methionine (0, 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4%, 0.5%, or 0.6%). The greatest weight gain (WG) and specific growth rate (SGR) of small and large shrimp were observed when dietary methionine levels were 0.8%, and 0.71%, respectively (P<0.05). The highest survival rate of small and large shrimp was observed when dietary methionine levels were 0.97%, and 1.07%, respectively (P<0.05). For small and medium shrimp, the optimal dietary methionine level for maximum weight gain estimated by quadratic regression analysis was 0.91% and 0.67% of dry diet, respectively. For large shrimp, the optimal dietary methionine requirement estimated by broken-line model based on weight gain was 0.66% of dry diet.