SUBSTITUTION OF ROTIFER BY A MICROENCAPSULATED DIET IN YELLOW FIN SEABREAM (ACANTHOPAGRUS LOTUS) LARVICULTURE

We examined the possibility of replacement of the live food (rotifer) with a vmicroencapsulated diet (MED) from first feeding in yellow fin seabream larvae by utilizing compound feeding technique during the first two weeks of larval life. The experiment consisted of five treatments and a control group (100% rotifer), which was fed live food during experimental period (regime A), three experimental treatments which received MED supplementing with reduced rations of rotifer including 75, 50 and 25 percent of rotifer in the control treatment (regimes B, C and D, respectively), and finally a treatment received exclusively MED throughout the experiment (regime E). At the end of the experiment results indicated that the regimes A, Band C did not differ significantly for total lengths, final survival and stress test resistance (P>0. 05). In terms of dry weight, there was no significant difference between 100% live food treatment (A) and that received 75% live food in control treatment (B) (P>0. 05). The solely MED treatment showed significantly lower growth and survival than other treatments receiving rotifer (P<0. 05). The results revealed that complete replacement of live food with MED are still not possible in Acanthopagrus lotus larval rearing. Nevertheless, a substantial 50% reduction in the daily supply of live food can be achieved with a combination of microencapsulated diet and live food.