Replacement of Artemia nauplii with different alternative diets for larval stage development and survival of giant fresh water prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de man)

Abstract

The present study was conducted on Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man) larvae to estimate the effectiveness of different diets to replace Artemia nauplii in the feeding system. The study included two experiments performed at pilot scale in 12 – l tanks using a recirculating system. Larval stocking density was 100 l – 1 . After 10 days of feeding by Artemia nauplii, different diets included wet and dry diets (Egg custard, Artemia flakes and Higashi Maru No-3 feed) and de-capsulated Artemia cysts, were tested to replace Artemia nauplii. In a control treatment using only de-capsulated Artemia cysts throughout the complete larval rearing was also included. The results showed that feeding larvae exclusively de-capsulated cysts for the complete rearing cycle was not suitable. When gradually replacing up to 50% of the Artemia nauplii ratio with wet or dry diets, good results in terms of growth, survival and quality of the larvae were obtained, similar to the control treatment receiving only Artemia nauplii. However, immediately replacing 50% of the Artemia nauplii ratio with artificial diets negatively affected larval development. Addition of artificial feed could start from larval stage VI, with about 25% of the Artemia nauplii replaced with artificial diet. Subsequently, the addition ratio could be increased up to 50% from stage VIII to postlarvae stage. Artificial diets should be provided in different particle size ranges based on the acceptance of larvae, larval stage, gradually increasing from 250 to 1000 μm from stage VI to postlarvae stage. The results obtained in the present work may also helpful for the replacement for different diets for economical aspects of the hatchery operations .