The Effects of Formulated Diet Inclusion on Growth and Reproductive Performances of Artemia franciscana

Artemia is an important live diet for shrimp and fish larvae in Indonesian hatcheries, yet its supply is highly dependent on imported products. Few hatcheries have been trying to culture and produce Artemia nauplii indoors. However, the artemia diet such as Tetraselmis chuii is very costly and laborious in preparation. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the effect of microalgal substitution with a formulated diet on the growth, fecundity, nauplii production, and survival rate of A. franciscana. A formulated diet (48% crude protein) was prepared and tested in a completely randomized design with five treatments (T1: 100% T. chuii as control, T2: 75% T. chuii and 25% formulated diets, T3: 50% T. chuii dan 50% formulated diets, T4: 25% T. chuii dan 75% formulated diets, T5: 100% formulated diets), and four replications. The results showed that the formulated diet can substitute microalgal diet up to 50% without significantly affecting the growth, fecundity, nauplii production, and survival rate of A. franciscana, P<0.05. These data are useful to improve A. franciscana culture to produce artemia biomass for feeding larvae of marine species.