Sustainable Technique for Selected Live Feed Culture

Abstract

Sustainability in the aquaculture industry depends on several factors including the minimum production cost in comparison to the yield, unexpected environmental conditions which affect the farm and practices in the farm management itself. These factors are inter-connected and always incur a synergistic effect on the issue of sustainability. Live feeds as the fundamental needs for larval rearing and fry production have to be prioritised for sustainable farming activity. Dependency on imported sources of live feeds or inert feed will increase the production cost. Thus, the continued activity of screening, stocking and maintaining some local species as an option for live feed production is economically necessary. Live feeds are an important basic diet for newly-hatched fish and shrimp larvae as they still have an incomplete digestive system and are lacking in enzymes. They are still at a very young stage to generate their own required nutrients or convert them from any pre-cursor obtained from a diet. They need a ready-made diet with readily available nutrient to be absorbed through their digestive system. There have been many species suggested or tested for their potential as live feed. All test animals were mostly zooplankton in nature and must meet the requirement as live feed. They must be in a compatible size with the mouth size or gape of the larvae predator, or they cannot be swallowed. Since larvae are still weak to track down the food, the wave created by the prey will be a great help, thus ‘active’ swimming prey is preferred. The most important role of a prey is the ability to supply energy and other nutrients which are essential for the larval survival and growth. Live feeds, as the starter diet in larval rearing and fry production must be continuous in supply. Good, nutritious and compatible-size prey must be able to reproduce fast to meet the requirement and adaptable to a simple mass-production technique.