Artemia biomass: A functional live maturation feed for Indian white shrimp, Penaeus indicus broodstock, and its culture prospective under diverse management regime

Artemia biomass production in a controlled biosecure system can be popularised in inland or coastal areas where accessibility to saltpan is limited. Against this background, four sets of experiments were executed to optimize different management regimes in Artemia biomass production, and to explore its role as a maturation diet for Indian white shrimp, Penaeus indicus. In experiment, I, Artemia biomass production was carried out in autotrophic (microalgae, TA), heterotrophic (TH), and mixotrophic (TMX) rearing systems for 18 days. Experiment II was conducted to evaluate Artemia biomass production under diverse salinity regimes (10, 15, 20, 30, 40, and 50 ppt), and in experiment III, the effect of varying stocking densities of Artemia (300, 600, 1200, and 1800 nos L−1) in production was attempted. In experiment IV, the role of adult Artemia (live, frozen, and hormone-enriched) as a maturation diet for P. indicus (36.40 ± 0.3 g) was explored, and the sex steroid profile of adult Artemia was compared with other fresh maturation feeds (polychaete, clam, and squid). At the end of Exp 1, significantly higher (P