Effects of Replacing Spirulina for Fishmeal in a Realistic Diet for Litopenaeus vannamei on Its Development and Feed Utilization
Selvam Selvapriya
Department of Marine Biotechnology, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India.
Gangatharan Muralitharan
National Facility for Marine Cyanobacteria, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India.
Sundaram Rajakumar *
Department of Marine Biotechnology, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of substituting marine Cyanobacteria species Spirulina sp BDUT005 for fish feed on Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei post larvae for a period of ninety days. Four levels of spirulina were utilized (5 and 10%). The experiment was conducted in 12 tanks with 100 L of water. There were three duplicates of each treatment, and each tank held thirty larvae weighing 0.03 g. The shrimp were fed the experimental diets, which contained around 40% protein, twice a day at an initial weight of 14% of body weight. At the end of the trial, the dosage was gradually reduced to 5%. Shrimp growth performance was measured every two weeks. Under these experimental conditions, it was discovered that the treatment in which 10% Spirulina sp BDUT005 was substituted for fish meal produced the greatest results in terms of growth performance and feed utilization.
Keywords: Feed utilization, growth performance, Spirulina sp BDUT005, L. vannamei