Preliminary studies on the effects of live and pellet feeds on the growth and survival of early juveniles of banana shrimp Fenneropenaeus merguiensis.

Abstract

The banana shrimp Fenneropenaeus merguiensis is an important alternative commercial cultured species. Presently, the industry is on a look out for an alternative species for shrimp culture. An experiment was conducted to determine the growth and survival of juveniles F. merguiensis using live feed (clam meat, and polychaete worms) and a commercial pellet feed. In 45 days of feeding, the weight gain, per day growth, specic growth rate and survival registered by the shrimp were analyzed and compared. Among the feeds given, clam meat showed highest percentage gain in weight (369.8 %) followed by polychaete (240.4 %) and commercial pellet feed (173.9 %). The survival rate amongst the three treatments did not show any signicant variation; however the highest rate was recorded in shrimps fed with polychaetes, clam meat and pellet feed. The ammonia and nitrite concentration in water showed distinct uctuations in the treatments especially shrimps fed with polychaete worms. Live feeds have imparted faster growth and survival in the present study indicating that early stages of banana shrimp have preference over pellet feed and strategies can be developed to have feeding regimes having a combination of live and pellet feeds.