Phototrophic Bacteria as Feed Supplement for Rearing Penaeus monodon Larvae

Larvae of the giant tiger prawn Penaeus monodon were reared from the naupliar to pos‐tlarval stage, based on a diet of waste‐grown phototrophic bacterium Rhodovulum sulfido‐philum , the marine diatom Skeletonema costatum , and brine shrimp Artemia The experimental design consisted of feeding the protozoea with diatoms and varying proportions of bacterial biomass as diet D0 (0%), D1 (1%), D2 (2%), D3 (3%), and D5 (5%), while mysis and postlarvae were fed the above diet supplemented with Artemia nauplii. Controls were not fed with bacteria biomass (diet D0). The addition of R. sulfidophilum biomass in the diet had significant effects on the growth and survival of P. monodon larvae. In the first experiment, the larvae fed with diet D1 ( Skeletonema + 1% R. sulfidophilum ) reached the first postlarval stage (PL1) on the ninth day of feeding and had a mean total length (TL) of 6.13 ± 0.05 mm, which was significantly higher ( P < 0.001) than TL of larvae fed with the other three diets. In another experiment, prawn larvae fed with diet D2 had the highest overall survival of 46% and a significantly larger mean TL of 6.88 ± 0.18 mm at PL1 compared to larvae fed with diet D0 and D3 ( P > 0.05). However, in both experiments prawn larvae fed with the various diets showed significant differences in their length‐at‐stage ( P > 0.05), and the lowest growth and survival were obtained from diets comprising 3% and 5% bacterial biomass, which also gave the highest levels of ammonia‐nitrogen in the culture water. Addition of more than 2% R. sulfidophilum biomass apparently deteriorates the quality of the culture water.