Influence of different diets in freshwater prawn Macrobrachiumcarcinus (Linnaeus, 1758) larval survival - DOI: 10.4025/actascibiolsci.v29i2.444

Abstract

This work aimed to evaluate different diets in Macrobrachium carcinus larval culture in order to improve the performance of prawn postlarvae production. Twenty-four 20 L circular recipients provided of water recirculating and aeration systems were used, where 25 larvae per liter were stocked (stages V-VI). Four treatments (related to diets) and six replicates were adopted: 1) Fish flesh (Ff); 2) Fish flesh + adult Artemia biomass (FfB); 3) Formulated diet (Fd); and 4) Formulated diet + adult Artemia biomass (FdB). The diets were offered four times a day (07:00, 10:00, 13:00 and 16:00 hrs) during 49 days. At the end of culture, the average of larval survival rates were 3.47, 7.40, 14.83 and 7.57%, respectively for Ff, FfB, Fd and FdB treatments. Ff treatment obtained the lowest survival (p ≤ 0.05). The highest survival (p ≤ 0.05) was obtained with the Fd diet (14.83%) that has shown to be the most appropriated alternative to use in M. carcinus hatchery. However, the use of adult Artemia biomass can provide better survival rates when associated with fish flesh.