Developing Artemia Enriched Herbal Diet for Producing Quality Larvae in Penaeus monodon, Fabricius

Post larvae (PL1– 30) of Penaeus monodon were fed five different herbal medicinal diets namely MD1, MD2, MD3, MD4 and MD5, prepared using Hygrophila spinosa, Withania somnifera, Zingiber officinalis, Solanum trilobatum, Andrographis paniculata, Psoralea corylifolia and cod-liver oil. Artemia franciscana nauplii and pre-adults were enriched with the above five diets and fed to the larvae of P. monodon. Survival, bioenergetics and specific growth rate were studied. To evaluate the quality of post larvae, they were subjected to salinity (0 and 50‰), pH (6 and 10) and formalin stress (80 and 160 ppm) shocks. Post larvae fed the herbal medicine enriched Artemia survived to a maximum of 95% in the MD1 group whereas the unenriched Artemia fed group showed only 89% survival. The unenriched Artemia fed group consumed 103.78±0.93 mg·animal·30 days food whereas the herbal medicinal diets helped to increase the food consumption significantly (P<0.05) and the MD1 enriched groups consumed the maximum (121.68±1.84 mg·animal·30 days) food. A similar pattern was also noticed in absorption, production and metabolism. The average absorption efficiency (86.17%) was not significant (P>0.05). The unenriched Artemia fed post larvae had a conversion efficiency of 17.47±0.21% whereas in the herbal medicinal diets enriched Artemia fed groups, efficiency increased significantly (P<0.05) to a maximum of 20.29± 0.23% in the MD1 fed group. The same pattern was also observed in net production efficiency. Specific growth rate also increased from that of the unenriched group. Among the five different herbal medicinal diets enriched Artemia and unenriched Artemia fed groups, when subjected to stress test, the MD1 group exhibited the highest resistance followed by MD3, MD5, MD4 and MD2 enriched Artemia fed groups. Asian Fisheries Science 15 (2002): 21-32 Asian Fisheries Society, Manila, Philippines