Search for Effective Protein Combination with Crab Protein for the Larval Kuruma Prawn Penaeus japonicus.

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In a series of studies to search for an optimal protein source for larval Penaeus japonicus feeding trials were conducted to determine the optimal combination of several protein sources with crab protein concentrate (CPC) on the larval development, growth, and survival of P. japonicus when fed on microbound diets. Although the addition of squid meal, brown fish meal, white fish meal, and krill meal to CPC improved larval performance compared to the single use of CPC, the magnitude of improvement by them was not as great as that by casein and soybean protein (SBP). In the diet containing both CPC and squid meal as the protein source, more CPC in the diet produced a poorer performance of larvae particularly at low levels of protein. Besides casein the best com-bination for larval development was CPC and SBP. The development, growth, and survival of larvae did not deteriorate when fed on CPC-SBP diets containing less than 30% of SBP. This study demonstrates that plant protein like SBP rather than squid meal as an additional source to CPC is available for good development, growth, and survival of larval prawn.