Early weaning protocols for the brackishwater nursery culture of the tropical anguillid eel <i>Anguilla marmorata</i> (Quoy &amp; Gaimard, 1984)

Feeding trials with Anguilla marmorata during the nursery culture were conducted to establish optimized protocols for transitioning from live to formulated diets. This study evaluated different weaning schemes over three phases of the nursery culture: from live feed ( Artemia ) to raw fish meat-based mash (FMT), from FMT to dry fish meal-based mash (FML), and from FML to dry formulated crumble diet. Specific growth rate (SGR), percent weight gain (%WG) and survival of A. marmorata elvers were assessed across treatments. The optimized weaning scheme for transitioning A. marmorata glass eel feeding from Artemia to FMT requires a 6.25% reduction of live feed daily for 16 days, resulting in the highest growth performance (SGR=4.49, %WG=109.25%) and survival (98.37%). Dietary transition from FMT to FML feeding, a 5% daily reduction of FMT with FML, over 20 days was found optimal. This treatment yielded superior growth performance with an SGR of 1.59, %WG of 68.80%, and survival of 62.00% (p&lt;0.05). The final phase, transitioning from FML to a formulated crumble diet, was optimized with a 25% daily reduction of FML over 4 days. Elvers on this feeding regime exhibited the highest growth (SGR=2.49, %WG=41.81%) and survival (100.00%). These weaning protocols effectively facilitated the dietary transition of A. marmorata during the nursery stage from live feed to dry-formulated diets within a 40-day period, enhancing the growth and survival of A. marmorata cultured in the brackish water nursery system. Published on November 08, 2024 CDT