Effects of intermittent feeding of different diets on growth of Litopenaeus vannamei

Abstract

Seven diet models offering were designed to investigate their effects on growth of the shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei, with a mean body weight of 1.380 ± 0.005 g (mean ± SE) at a temperature of 25 ± 0.5°C. The shrimps under different treatments were periodically fed with polychaete worm (PW, Neanthes japonicus) and commercial formulated diet (FD) with the ratio of 0:1, 1:4, 1:2, 1:1, 2:1, 4:1, and 1:0 in feeding frequency of PW followed by FD, respectively. Only one kind of food was offered each time and all the shrimps were fed twice daily. The result of the 45-day experiment showed that the specific growth (SGRd) of shrimps fed with PW exclusively was 65% higher than those fed with FD only (P < 0.05); and the shrimps fed with the ratio of 4PW: 1FD, grew 15% faster than those fed with PW only in terms of SGRd (P < 0.05). The shrimps fed with the ratio of 4PW: 1FD spent a greater percentage of energy deposited for growth (G) from the energy consumed in food (C) and less percentage of energy lost for respiration (R) from C than those of shrimps fed with PW only. In contrast to feeding mixed diets, intermittent feeding of different diets can improve food conversion efficiency and avoid the waste of food caused by shrimp's food selection behavior. Therefore, the pattern of intermittent feeding on different diets was more practical and valuable in aquaculture.