Growth, Survival Rate and Production Cost of Juvenile Milkfish (Chanos chanos, Forskal) Culture with Three Different Live Feeds

Abstract

Milkfish (Chanos chanos, Forskal) juveniles were fed with different feeds namely water flea, Artemia flake and Artemia nauplii in fiber glass tanks at densities of 50 fish/tank or 0.5 fish/liter for 60 days. Average initial length and weight of fry were 25 .00±0.70 mm and 0.18±0.01 g, respectively. After 60 day nursing trials, growth parameters of milkfish by fed with water flea and Artemia nauplii were not significantly different (P>0.05) i.e. average lengths (46.02±2.90 and 46.40±5.97 mm, respectively), average weights (1.45±0.37 and 1.36±0.19g, resp.), ADO-length (0.35±0.05 and 0.35± 0.10 mm/day, resp.), ADG weight (0.021±0.06 and 0.019±0.003 g/day, resp.), SGR length (1.01±0.11 and 1.02±0.20 %/day, resp.), and SGR weight (3.41±0.48 and 3.34±0.24 %/day, resp). These figures were significantly higher (P<0.05) than those obtained from milkfish fry fed with Artemia flakes. The same trend is exhibited in survival rates, at 76.66±5.03 and 82.00±5.29 % for those fed with water flea & Artemia nauplii, respectively. These rates are significantly higher than that of fry fed with Artemia  flakes (61.33±9.86 %).

The cost of milkfish juvenile production was 0.44, 1.53 and 5.54 Baht/fish with water flea, Artemia flake and Artemia nauplii as feed, respectively. This study recommend that water flea can be used as an economical feed for milkfish juveniles production.