The effects of soy lecithin–enriched Artemia on growth and survival of the early stages of green tiger shrimp (Penaeus semisulcatus)

Abstract

The lecithin (LST) requirements for young and adult crustaceans have been investigated, and little information is available for early life stages. Therefore, our study aimed to determine the best Artemia enrichment levels with soy lecithin as a means of maintaining better survival, growth rate, and total length during the early stages (mysis 1 to post-larva 7) of the green tiger shrimp, Penaeus semisulcatus. Artemia enrichment at five different lecithin levels (0, 1, 2, 3, and 4% soy lecithin) was carried out by aeration. At the end of the experiment, survival and total length were clearly affected by the enrichment process. The larvae grown from M1 to PL1 or to PL7 displayed higher survival (93.1–93.3% at PL1 or 83.9–84.1% at PL7) in LST2–3 compared with those fed the CT or LST1 treatments. The largest larval total length (TL) at PL1 (5.93–6.04 mm TL) or PL7 (8.99–9.06 mm TL) was observed in shrimp fed the LST2–4 treatments. Daily growth rates of the PLs (0.50–0.51 mm/day TL) fed the LST2–4-enriched groups were also significantly greater than those of the CT group. In general, growth, total length, and survival of shrimp PL-fed Artemia enriched with 2, 3, or 4% LST did not differ significantly from each other, but did perform significantly better than those fed the CT or LST1 treatments. Consequently, this study confirms that if lecithin is desired to be evaluated and used according to its field of activity and Artemia enriched with 2–3% LST for 24 h, it can effectively improve the total length and survival of the early stages of P. semisulcatus and 4% LST can positively affect growth rate and whole-body fatty acid composition especially DHA.