Abstract
Fiji has a strong demand for shrimp but farmers have hard time meeting the demand due to inadequate knowledge of local ingredients. A nutritional study was conducted to evaluate the growth performances of juveniles of the freshwater prawn species Macrobrachium rosenbergii. The prawns were fed with low cost formulated diets using locally available ingredients. Two experiments were conducted with six different diets in each of the experiment. In Experiment 1, diets were mainly based on carbohydrate ingredients ( fish meal+wheat, Fish meal+meat bone meal+wheat, Fish bone meal+fish meal+wheat, Meat bone meal+wheat, Meat fish meal+fish meal+wheat and Meat fish meal+wheat). While diets for Experiment 2 were based protein ingredients ( Fish meal+wheat, Fish meal+meat meal, Fish meal+meat meal+crest tilapia pellet, Fish meal+meat meal+copra meal, Fish meal+wheat+pea meal and Crest tilapia pellet). Each experiment (6 diets x 3 replicates) was carried out in the laboratory. Juveniles were fed twice a day for a period of three and four weeks in Experiment 1 and 2 respectively. Results indicated no significant (P>0.05) differences in water quality parameters. All nitrate, nitrite and ammonia concentrations were less than 0.2 mg/L. Fat and crude fiber contents were lowest and highest respectively in crest pellet tilapia (4.60% and 17.98%). Experiment 1 showed slight variations in growth performance. In Experiment 2, crest tilapia pellets indicated better result in weight gain (7.04 ± 2.96 mm), carapace, abdomen and body length (4.74 ± 1.94, 5.57 ± 0.62 and 5.57 ± 0.62), specific growth rate ( 2.38 ± 0.53) and feed intake (1.31 ± 1.19).However, no significant differences (P ≥ 0.05) were observed in either of the experiments. The costs of making each feed was almost same (0.53–0.58 Aus $/Kg). The findings indicate that the ingredient inclusion level for local ingredients available in Fiji could be quite flexible and used successfully for the growth of fresh water prawn juveniles (M .rosenbergii).
Highlights
Nutrient requirement and feed utilization can be estimated from intake measurements, palatability and digestibility Gonzales [1]
The idea was to produce a diet using locally available ingredients which could be prepared by farmers as “on farm- feeds” and in the future, suggested to commercial feed companies to produce and supply
Available ingredients were identified as fish meal, meat bone meal, meat fish meal, copra meal, wheat, mill mix, rice meal and pea meal
Summary
Nutrient requirement and feed utilization can be estimated from intake (utilization) measurements, palatability and digestibility Gonzales [1]. Significant differences in feed intakes between the reference diet and test diets indicate the clear palatability of the test ingredients Glencross [2]. Pacific Feeds Ltd is a producer of tilapia and prawn pellets selling at FJ$ 25.00 and FJ$ 37.00 respectively. As part of the Fiji Islands Freshwater Aquaculture Sector Plan 20052010, the Government has recognized the potential in freshwater prawn farming in Fiji, and has emphasized its development and production expansion in the coming years. In view of this initiative, a study was undertaken to evaluate feed intakes of M. rosenbergii for six diet formulations that all utilized local ingredients
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