Nutritional requirements and feeds development for post-larval spiny lobster: A review

On-growing of wild-caught juvenile spiny (Palinuridae) lobsters to market size is an emerging aquaculture industry in Asia, Oceania and Central America but most notably in Vietnam where a US$90 million per annum industry flourishes. The sustainability of the supply of wild juveniles is an ever present threat to industry expansion, which ultimately may be overcome through successful life cycle closure. However, another and perhaps more imminent impediment is the present reliance on fresh fishery by-catch as a source of food for lobster culture. The decreasing availability and increasing cost of the by-catch, together with the downstream environmental impacts caused by this type of feeding, has focused attention on the need for more sustainable and environmentally-friendly pelleted feeds. Efforts to develop palatable and high performance pelleted dry feeds for spiny lobster grow-out have not met with a lot of success until recently. This paper reviews the progress that has been made and identifies where further research effort is needed.