Use of Spirulina platensis meal as feed attractant in diets for shrimp Litopenaeus schmitti

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the wet laboratory of the Fisheries Research Centre, Havana, Cuba, to evaluate the attractability of a pelleted diet containing Spirulina platensis meal for Litopenaeus schmitii juvenile. The design was completely randomized with 4 treatments and 6 repetitions. Two diets: a diet containing 5% of Spirulina platensis meal and a control diet without it, and two positions of the feed were assayed inside an experimental device consisting in a rectangular glass aquarium in which two internal glass walls were placed in order to have three equal sections. Ten shrimps with mean weight of 0.503 ± 0.018 g were placed in the central section of the aquarium, with access to the other two sections, where the experimental diets were placed. A bifactorial analysis showed that the attraction was significatly affected by type of feed, although the position did not have any significant effect. A greater percentage of shrimp (68%) moved toward the position where the diet containing Spirulina platensis meal was placed, and ingested the diet. It is concluded that the inclusion of 5% of Spirulina platensis meal improved the attractability of the feed for Litopenaeus schmitti