Effects of Probiotics on Growth Parameters of Giant Freshwater Prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii de Man)

Macrobrachium rosenbergii de Man “Giant Freshwater Prawn” is a commercially important species of aquaculture due to its utilization as good source of food with high protein and low cholesterol contents. Diseases caused by pathogenic bacteria have adversely affected its production and growth. In present study, 3-4 months old healthy giant freshwater prawns brought from three fish farms of Haryana (India) were cultured in the laboratory at CCS HAU Hisar, Haryana (India) aimed to find out the effects of probiotics on its growth parameters. Different treatments were administered on cultured prawns over a period of 8 weeks including control, inoculation with bacterium 1 (Aeromonas hydrophilla), bacterium 2 (Pseudomonas flourcence) and bacterium 1 + 2 together. Likewise, probiotics 1 and probiotics 2 were applied separately on healthy and diseased prawns as well as in different combinations with pathogenic bacteria. Length and weight percent in prawns were increased comparatively less after inoculation with bacterium 1 and bacterium 2 (alone and together) but significant increase in growth percent was reported when probiotics were added along with pathogenic bacteria. Probiotics 1 and 2 administered to healthy prawns had remarkably increased the percent length (92.83 & 79.07) and weight (346.79 & 320) respectively and similar trend was observed in diseased prawns. It was reported that probiotics 1 had performed better than probiotics 2 in per cent increase of growth in prawns. Considering the great importance of giant freshwater prawns in aquaculture food production, there is an emergent need to optimize the best composition of probiotics for further boost in growth.