Panagrellus redivivus mass produced on solid media as live food for Litopenaeus vannamei larvae

Abstract

The free‐living soil nematode Panagrellus redivivus is well known to be an excellent food source for first feeding fish larvae. It represents an alternative to the highly expensive Artemia, which is commonly used. The lack of a proper method for mass production of P. redivivus has prevented its wider use in commercial hatcheries. A new cultivation method allows the production of a sufficient quantity of nematodes to deliver a standardized and permanently available live food of high quality, throughout the larval rearing period. In two experiments – carried out at the Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y Desarrollo, Mexico – several feeding regimes were established to prove the quality of the mass produced P. redivivus for larvae of Litopenaeus vannamei, the Pacific white shrimp. Two different nematode treatments were compared with a no‐feed group and a control group that was fed with Artemia. All treatments had an additional algal co‐feed and were run in five replicates. Panagrellus redivivus was cultured on two different media (wheat/corn flour and oat flour) to compare these for their suitability as high‐quality live food for the larvae. Shrimp fed nematodes grown on wheat/corn medium reached the postlarval stage earlier than those from other treatments. The nematode treatments showed promising results; however, further research is needed on the development of improved culture media or enrichment methods to further increase the nutritional value of P. redivivus.

Improving nematode culture techniques and their effects on amino acid profile with considerations on production costs

“…Biedenbach et al (1989) raised Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) larvae on nematodes and showed that the larvae fed with different nematode densities grew faster or were at least similar in comparison to an Artemia diet. Also in Pacific white shrimp larvae, Focken et al (2006) showed that there was little difference in survival when fed either nematodes or Artemia and that larvae grew almost as fast as with Artemia in high enough nematode densities (100-150 Ind. ml À1 ).…”

“…Also in Pacific white shrimp larvae, Focken et al. () showed that there was little difference in survival when fed either nematodes or Artemia and that larvae grew almost as fast as with Artemia in high enough nematode densities (100–150 Ind. ml −1 ).…”

Evaluation of frozen Umbrella-stage Artemia as first animal live food forLitopenaeus vannamei(Boone) larvae

“…Zoeal stages feed mainly on phytoplankton (3-30 lm diameter) by filter-feeding, although from stage Z2, depending on the penaeid species, they can capture animal prey of up to 100 lm raptorially (Jones, Kumlu, Le Vay & Fletcher 1997). Feeding on animal organism as early as Z2 has been documented by several authors, using rotifers (Emmerson 1984;Samocha et al 1989;Naessens, Cobo, Van Hauwaert, Van Horenbeeck & Sorgeloos 1995), nematodes (Wilkenfeld 1984;Biedenbach, Smith, Thomsen & Lawrence 1989;Focken, Schlechtriem, von Wuthenau, Garc ıa-Ortega, Puello-Cruz & Becker 2006), copepods (D'Abramo et al 2006) and Artemia nauplii in different forms such as live freshly-hatched nauplii (Kuban, Lawrence & Wilkenfeld 1985;Samocha et al 1989;Lavens & Sorgeloos 1996) and frozen nauplii (Wilkenfeld, Fox & Lawrence 1981). Some commercial hatcheries start feeding Instar 1 Artemia nauplii as early as possible, because a number of studies have documented the benefit of an introduction of an animal protein source in the zoea stages (Wilkenfeld 1984;Samocha et al 1989;Naessens et al 1995).…”

“…Feeding on animal organism as early as Z2 has been documented by several authors, using rotifers (Emmerson ; Samocha et al . ; Naessens, Cobo, Van Hauwaert, Van Horenbeeck & Sorgeloos ), nematodes (Wilkenfeld ; Biedenbach, Smith, Thomsen & Lawrence ; Focken, Schlechtriem, von Wuthenau, García‐Ortega, Puello‐Cruz & Becker ), copepods (D'Abramo et al . ) and Artemia nauplii in different forms such as live freshly‐hatched nauplii (Kuban, Lawrence & Wilkenfeld ; Samocha et al .…”

Evaluation of an improved RNA/DNA quantification method in a common carp (Cyprinus carpio Linnaeus 1758) larval feeding trial with Artemia , two nematodes (Panagrellus redivivus Linnaeus 1758, Panagrolaimus sp. Fuchs 1930) and dry feed

“…Panagrolaimidae, 'microworms') are commonly used as food for ornamental fish larvae and have been positively tested as larval food in aquaculture fish as well as crustacean species (e.g. Biedenbach et al, 1989;Rottmann et al, 1991;Santiago et al, 2003Santiago et al, , 2004Focken et al, 2006;Sautter et al, 2007). Due to their size, shape and active movement, nematodes are a suitable prey item for fish and crustacean larvae.…”