Aquaculture Reports (May 2016)

Impact of fishmeal replacement with Arthrospira platensis on growth performance, body composition and digestive enzyme activities of the freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii

  • S. Radhakrishnan,
  • Ibrahim E.H. Belal,
  • C. Seenivasan,
  • T. Muralisankar,
  • P. Saravana Bhavan

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 3
pp. 35 – 44

Abstract

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In this study, we assessed the suitable level of replacement of fishmeal with a blue green microalga, Arthrospira platensis in feed for the post larvae (PL) of the freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii by evaluating the growth performance, prawn proximate composition, feed utilization parameters and the activity of digestive enzymes. The prawns were fed 5 different diets: a control diet and 4 different diets containing A. platensis at various levels such as 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%. These diets were fed to the PL for 90 days in triplicates. The growth performance in terms of weight gain, specific growth rate and feed efficiency ratio were found significantly (P 25 > 75 > 100% replacement of fishmeal with A. platensis. These results concluded that a partial replacement of the fishmeal with A. platensis at the level of 50% is beneficial for the growth of prawn M. rosenbergii. Keywords: Arthrospira, Prawn, Nutritional utilization, Biochemical, Amino acids