View article

A study was conducted with newly hatched larvae of blue swimming crab, Portunus pelagicus reared in six different treatments. Treatment 1 larvae was fed with rotifer only at zoea 1 to megalopa stages, Treatment 2 larvae was fed with Artemia only at zoea 1 to megalopa stages and Treatment 3 larvae was fed with rotifer at zoea 1 to megalopa stages with Artemia at zoea 2 to megalopa stages. Meanwhile in Treatment 4, rotifer was given at zoea 1 to megalopa stages with Artemia at zoea 3 to megalopa stages and in Treatment 5 larvae was fed with rotifer at zoea 1 to megalopa stages and Artemia at zoea 4 to megalopa stages for Portunus pelagicus larvae. In Treatment 6 larvae was fed with rotifer at zoea 1 to megalopa stages and Artemia at megalopa stages. Result shows that there was higher survival rate of zoea 2 stages of larval on the Treatment 1 in the diet whilst Treatment 2 suffered high mortality. The highest survival rate and growth rate was obtained in Treatment 3. There was no significant difference (P= 1.0; P> 0.05) between the mean values of development duration for all treatment except for Treatment 3 where the development from zoea 4 to megalopa stages was 1 day faster. Based on results, further experiments should be done to evaluate differential nutritional composition when larvae are reared in large quantity for mass seed production.