Developing Artemia Enriched Herbal Diet for Producing Quality Larvae in Penaeus monodon, Fabricius

Post larvae (PLI-30) of Penaeus monodon were fed five different herbal medicinal diets namely MD1, MD2, MD3, MD4 and MD5, prepared using Hygrophila spinosa, Withania somnifera, Zingiber officinalis, Solanum trilobatum, Andrographis paniculata, Psoralea corylifolia and cod-liver oil. Artemia franciscana nauplii and pre-adults were enriched with the above five diets and fed to the larvae of P. monodon. Survival, bioenergetics and specific growth rate were studied. To evaluate the quality of post larvae, they were subjected to salinity (0 and 50 ppm), pH (6 and 10) and formalin stress (80 and 160 ppm) shocks. Post larvae fed the herbal medicine enriched Artemia survived to a maximum of 95% in the MD1 group whereas the unenriched Artemia fed group showed only 89% survival. The unenriched Artemia fed group consumed 103.78~c0.93 mg-animal-30 days food whereas the herbal medicinal diets helped to increase the food consumption significantly (P0.05). The unenriched Artemia fed post larvae had a conversion efficiency of 17.47~c0.21% whereas in the herbal medicinal diets enriched Artemia fed groups, efficiency increased significantly (P