Document Type : Short communication
Authors
1
Institute of Tropical Aquaculture and Fisheries, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21300 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia
2
Aquaculture Department, Faculty of Agriculture, University Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
3
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University, 5600 US 1 North, Fort Pierce, 34946, FL, United States
4
Faculty of Fisheries and Food Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21300 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu Malaysia
5
Faculty of Fisheries and Food Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21300 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu Malaysia; Institute of Tropical Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, University Malaysia Terengganu, 21300 Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia
Abstract
In an aquatic habitat, zooplankton organisms are an extremely valuable resource for aquaculture purposes. Potential zooplankton species (Ceriodaphnia cornuta) have been further explored to evaluate their applicability to fed fish larvae in freshwater aquaculture. There is a need to find more options other than Artemia as live food options in freshwater hatcheries. Thus, this study was conducted by enriching Ceriodaphnia cornuta with rice bran (F1), soybean meal (F2), Chlorella vulgaris (F3), Spirulina sp. (F4), and unenriched C. cornuta (control). The result showed that the best growth performance of C. cornuta occurred when enriched with an F1 and F2 compared to F3 and F4. Meanwhile, the best initial age of reproduction occurred when enriched with F1+F3 and F3+F4 (3.67 ± 0.57 days and 3.66 ± 1.15 days). Besides, the gross and net reproduction rate of C. cornuta differed withother enrichments where F1+F3 has the highest rates (67.66 ± 1.52 offspring/female and 56.32 ± 0.90 offspring/female) compared to other treatments. The generation time for C. cornuta was shorter when enriched with F2 (7.11 ± 0.88 days) and longer when enriched with F1+F3 (11.23 ± 0.66 days). Other than that, the best growth performance of P. nasutus larvae occurs when fed with F1+F3. This study indicates that F1+F3 constitutes better sources of enrichment to improve the growth performance and life history of zooplankton.
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