Influence of feeding regime on survial, growth and reproduction of Artemia franciscana under laboratory condition

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess the influence of feeding regime on survival, growth and reproduction of Artemia franciscana under laboratory condition. The aim of the study is evaluate the survival, growth and reproductive characteristics of Artemia franciscana by different feeding regimes under laboratory condition. The study was conducted in 2 experiments, each experiment have 4 treatments with 3 replicates. Experiment 1: Culture wild algae with different ration of N/P, Urea (46% N) and DAP (18% N and 46% P) fertilizer are used as source of N/P for all treatments. Fertilizer was used one time in the first day with 4 different N/P ratios. Treatment 1 (control treatment): N/P ratio is 10/1; Treatment 2: N/P ratio is 20/1; Treatment 3: N/P ratio is 30/1; Treatment 4: N/P ratio is 40/1. The initial density of wild algae was 9.5*105 cell/mL. The study was conducted on 9 days, after the collapse of wild algae in 4 treatments. At the third day of experiment, the growth of wild algae was showed highest in Treatment 4: 3.5*106 cell/mL, significantly higher than 3 other treatments (p<0.05). The best treatment of the experiment 1 was used to culture algae in experiment 2.Experiment 2: Culture Artemia with different feeding regimes. Treatment 1 (TM1): (control treatment): Supply only wild algae (traditional fertilizer). Treatment 2 (TM2): Supply wild algae (traditional fertilizer) + 40% formulated feed. Treatment 3 (TM3): Supply only algae (formulated fertilizer). Treatment 4 (TM4): Supply algae (Formulated fertilizer) + 40% formulated feed. Green water was supplied at the rate of 10% of total 5 L culture volume. Artemia stocking density was 100 inds/L. Results indicated that TM 4 (Supply algae (Formulated fertilizer) + 40% formulated feed) is the suitable feeding regime that represented in growth, survival and reproductive characteristics. In day 14, the length of Artemia in TM4 were reached 9.54 ± 1.63 mm, and it was significantly higher than 3 other treatments (p<0.05). TM4 also was the highest survival rate with 82.33 ± 3.68% in day 14. TM4 had the highest number of cyst (100.98 ± 10.19 cyst/time) and significant different from the others (p<0.05). Treatment 4 also had the highest number of nauplii (77.54 ± 11.47 nauplii/time) and significant different from 4 other treatments (p<0.05). In conclusion, in experiment 1, with no different in components of algae, the highest density of algae is the best treatment: treatment 4: N/P ratio 40/1 (5728g Urea + 141g DAP). And in experiment 2, TM4 (Formulated fertilizer algae + 40% formulated feed) is the suitable feeding regime that represented in growth, survival and reproductive characteristics.