Effects of coloured feed on growth and survival in giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii larva

• Main Author: Gwee, Pei Xuan
• Format: Academic Exercise
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: SH Aquaculture. Fisheries. Angling
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/18535/1/Effects%20of%20coloured%20feed%20on%20growth.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/18535/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Sabah

This work investigates the effects of different coloured custard on Macrobrachium rosenbergii during larvae stage. The trials were conducted in two phases: phase 1 behavioral response of larvae in stage VIII-IX larvae was done to determine the preference and acceptance on yellow and blue custards and phase 2, the effects of yellow and blue custard when applied in the larvae cycle. In phase 1, behavioral response tests, yellow and blue custards were dropped into the middle of the tank 15-20cm from the edge of the tank wall where the larvae gathered in the absence of aeration. The number of larvae attracted and accepted blue custard was higher than that of yellow custard. In phase 2,100L size round tank filled with 60 liters of 12ppt brackish water, and the stocking density of the larvae was 30/L. For each coloured custard treatment was done in triplicate, coloured custards were introduced started from stage V until PL stage. There were no significant effects between blue and yellow custards on the larval development, metamorphosis and survival. However,o n metamorphosis larvae that fed with yellow custard, the appearance of PL only found in one out of the three treatment tanks, while the appearance of PL was found in all of the treatment tanks that fed with blue custard on 28th day of culture. At the end of the experiment, the body weight of the post larvae (PL) fed on blue custard was 28% higher than the PL fed on yellow custard. Besides that, the body length of PL was 5.56% higher than the PL fed on yellow custard. Meaning that, the size of the PL fed on blue custard during the larvae cycle was larger than the PL fed on yellow custard. Due to the nutritional content in the coloured custard were constant throughout the rearing process, the blue custard was only able to improve the body weight gained of the PL instead to accelerate the larval development. Therefore, this study shows that by vision, larvae are able to detect, capture and ingest more blue custards than yellow custards