Quality of eggs produced from wild and captive spawners of Penaeus Indicus H. Milne Edwards and their bacterial load

Abstract

The seeds of Penaeus indicus H. Milne Edwards were produced following the modified Galveston system at a hatchery located at Narakkal near Cochin, India. Unilaterally eyestalk-ablated wild females were used for seed production. Some adult prawns collected from grow-out ponds attached to the hatchery were also used for breeding purposes. In all, 20 spawnings were observed in the present study. Poor-quality eggs and abnormal nauplii were observed, usually from the pond-reared eyestalk-ablated females during the period of investigation. The present study was carried out to describe different types of eggs based on morphology and to determine the bacterial load of eggs and its relationship with hatching rate.