Evaluation of different feeds for nursery rearing of Asian seabass Lates calcarifer.

Abstract

Asian seabass, Lates calcarifer (Bloch) fry were reared with Artemia biomass, PUFA enriched Artemia, Moina, PUFA enriched Moina, egg custard and fish meat as feeds. Survival and growth rates were recorded after 45 days of rearing. Maximum survival (88.7 ±4.1%) was observed in PUFA enriched Artemia, followed by non-enriched Artemia (85.33 ± 8.2 %), PUFA enriched Moina (84.0 ± 6.5 %), non-enriched Moina (82.0±1.6%), egg custard (71.3±6.6%) and fish meat (60.3±5.7%). Mean length increment was 41.2 ± 4.0 mm in fry fed with PUFA enriched Artemia biomass, followed by non-enriched Artemia (41.0 ± 6.1 mm), non-enriched Moina (29.0 ± 3.0 mm), egg custard (28.6 ± 3.7 mm), enriched Moina (26.8 ± 2.8 mm) and fish meat (22.3 ± 3.0 mm). However wet weight gain was in the order of non-enriched Artemia (0.90 ± 0.03 g), followed by enriched Artemia (0.86 ± 0.23g), egg custard (0.35 ± 0.1g), non-enriched Moina (0.31 ± 0.06 g), enriched Moina (0.23 ± 0.09 g) and fish meat (0.14 ± 0.05 g). Results have indicated that Artemia biomass enriched with PUFA is a better feed for rearing seabass fry.