GROWTH OF Homarus americanus ON Artemia salina DIETS WITH AND WITHOUT SUPPLEMENTATION

Abstract

AbstractAquaculturists rely heavily on the brine shrimp (Artemia salina) as a food source for fish larvae, decapods and cephalopods. Besides the difficulty in obtaining these cysts, they are costly. This study was designed to determine if an A. salina diet supplemented with macro algae and various scrap foods could obtain the same or better growth rate on juvenile lobsters than live A. salina fed as a single source diet.The hepatopancreas of the lobster has been used as a criterion for determining the animal's general health. During this study, gross morphological examinations were made of the hepatopancreas of animals fed on both diets. This was done in order to determine if the characteristic color, size and firmness of the A. salina fed juveniles' hepatopancreases were accurate indicators of a “healthy” animal or characteristic of only the diet. After 90 days, the animals on the supplemented diet showed a significantly greater weight gain and increase in carapace length than the animals fed only A. salina. The hepatopancreas varied in color in the animals on the different feeding regimes. Though the size and firmness may be important criteria, the color cannot be used as a true indicator for a “healthy” animal.The results of this study show that a supplemented diet can be an important economical factor in the application of practical aquaculture.