EFFECT OF DIFFERENT LIGHTING CONDITIONS ON FEEDING ACTIVITY AND EYE ADAPTATION OF POST LARVAE PENAEUS VANNAMEI

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of light and dark conditions on feeding activity and eye adaptations of post larvae (PL5, PL10, PL20 and PL30) Penaeus vannamei fed with frozen Artemia. Shrimp PL were placed individually in beakers and after acclimatization under the light or dark condition, PL were left to ingest known number of Artemia for 30 minutes. Thereafter, each PL was subsequently anesthetized by putting an ice cube into the beakers followed by adding few drops of paraformaldehyde. The results showed that the PL5 ingested significantly more frozen Artemia under light condition compared to dark condition (P<0.05). The eye structures of PL5 comprises of crystalline cone, rhabdom and fasciculated zone. However, it was incomplete due to the lack of clear zone and no migration of the screening pigment granules was observed under light and dark conditions. On the contrary, the number of frozen Artemia ingested by the latter stages PL10, PL20 and PL30 showed no significant differences (P>0.05) under both light conditions and these PL have complete eye structures with define clear zone. The width of clear zone was found to increase proportionally with the growth of the PL. Besides that, the screening pigment granules were able to migrate under light and dark conditions. The ability of the PL10, PL20 and PL30 to ingest almost similar numbers of Artemia under light and dark conditions suggests that different lighting conditions did not affect the feeding activity of the PL and other sensory organs may play roles in detecting food, while PL5 need light to improve their feeding activity. Based on these results, we suggest that in aquaculture practice, during the rearing of early stage of PL (<PL5), a brighter environment or light should be provided to enhance larval feeding activities. Whereas, later stages of PL (>PL10) can be cultured under any light condition.