Evaluation of the Impacts of Long-Term Enriched Artemia with Bacillus subtilis on Growth Performance, Reproduction, Intestinal Microflora, and Resistance to Aeromonas hydrophila of Ornamental Fish Poecilia latipinna

The present study investigated the effect of enriched Artemia with Bacillus subtilis on growth performance, reproductive factors, proximate composition, intestinal microflora, and resistance to Aeromonas hydrophila of ornamental fish, Poecilia latipinna . Using a completely randomized design, the experiment included three groups. The first group was fed with commercial food without any probiotic. The second group was fed with unenriched Artemia , and the last group consumed long-time enriched Artemia with Bacillus subtilis . The bacteria B . subtilis with a density of 1 × 10 5 CFU mL −1 was added daily to Artemia culture medium. The total microflora and Bacillus subtilis counts were significantly increased in enriched Artemia compared to the unenriched group ( P 0.05). The maximum relative fecundity (28.65 ± 2.52 egg number g −1 ), fry production (62.93 ± 4.6 individual per female), and fry survival (70.97 ± 1.56%) obtained in the third group were found to be significantly more than those in the first and the second groups. Moreover, intestinal bacterial count for Bacillus revealed that the higher concentration of bacteria was significantly related to the third group (6.24 ± 0.11 log CFU g −1 ) ( P 0.05). The highest amount of ash was observed in fish fed with commercial food without any probiotic ( P