Growth, Survival, and Biochemical Composition of Freshwater Prawns Macrobrachium rosenbergii Fed Natural Food Organisms Under Controlled Conditions

Abstract

Under production conditions freshwater prawns Macrobrachium rosenbergii are supplied nutrients by a combination of prepared diets and natural pond organisms. For maximum production efficiency and profitability it is important that the nutritional contributions of natural foods be identified and quantified. In this study the relative importance of forage organisms previously identified as important natural foods for prawns in ponds were evaluated under controlled conditions. Juvenile prawns (average weight 1.80 ± 0.06 g) were stocked into 18 37.5‐L aquaria at a density of 10 prawns per tank. The six dietary treatments tested were: 1) unfed (negative control); 2) commercially prepared diet (positive control); 3) oligo‐chaetes; 4) chironomids; 5) zooplankton; and 6) a combination of the latter three. Each treatment was evaluated in triplicate aquaria for 7 wk. The growth rate of prawns in the unfed treatment was statistically lower than in fed treatments (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences (P > 0.05) between growth rates and survivals among prawns in the five fed treatments. Selective retention of arachidonic acid (20:4n‐6), eicosapentanoic acid (22: 5n‐3), and docosahexanenoic acid (22:6n‐3) in unfed prawns likely indicates the relative nutritional importance of these fatty acids. Comparisons of whole‐body fatty acid and amino acid concentrations of prawns and food organisms indicate that zooplankton and oligochaetes may have the most appropriate biochemical compositions as prawn food sources.

Feeding vitamins, antioxidants and cod liver oil enriched formulated feed influences the growth, survival and fatty acid composition of <i>Macrobrachium rosenbergii</i> (de Man, 1879) postlarvae

“…But according to Rees et al(1994), very high n-3 HUFA may lead to detrimental effects on both growth and survival of P. monodon postlarvae. Formulated diets may not closely match the nutritional requirements of prawns (Tidwell et al 1997). However, differences in experimental design, postlarval age, duration of the experimental period, feed management and most likely, differences in the composition and quality of the emulsions used in other studies may have affected the differences of various experimental results.…”

Proximate Composition and Profiles of Amino Acids and Fatty Acids in the Muscle of Adult Males and Females of Commercially Viable Prawn Species Macrobrachium rosenbergii Collected from Natural Culture Environments

“…There are several reports available with respect to improvement of nutritional quality of M. rosenbergii under culture conditions (Hilton et al 1984;Ravishankar and Keshavnath, 1986;Briggs et al 1988;Reed and D'Abramo, 1989;Sheen and D'Abramo, 1991;Das et al 1996;Tidewell et al 1997;Cheng and Hardy, 2004;Hossain et al 2006;Hossain and Paul, 2007;Hasanuzzaman et al 2009). However, literature is scanty regarding the proximate composition of M. rosenbergii in the wild except a few reports (Cavilli et al 2001;Thompson et al 2004;Bhavan et al 2008).…”

Growout of Freshwater Prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii in Fertilized Ponds with Reduced Levels of Formulated Feed

“…upahtech@yahOo.com of feed cost portions of the operating costs of the farms ranging between 5% in the USA to 52% in Malaysia with 41% in Brazil. Several studies have been conducted to reduce the feed cost for various aquaculture species and to evaluate the potential of foraged organisms as a food source when raising freshwater prawns in earthen ponds (Stahl 1979;Costa-Pierce et al 1987;Wyban et al 1987;Allan et al 1995;Tidwell et al 1995Tidwell et al , 1997aTidwell et al , 1997bKikuchi 1999).…”