Effect of manipulated diets on growth and survival of freshwater prawn Macrobrachium malcolmsonii (H. Milne!Edwards)

Juvenile Macrobrachium malcolmsonii (1.5 +/- 0.5g) were fed four types of pelleted feeds for a period of 40 days. Feed type I is a commercial feed and II is a cyanobacterial feed, formulated by National Facility for Marine Cyanobacteria, Bharathidasan University. The remaining diets III and IV were prepared in the laboratory with locally available ingredients, which contain 40% leaf protein of Sesbania grandiflora and soyabean meal. The feed conversion efficiency was 1.26, 1.30, 1.85 and 2.32 for feed I-IV respectively. The survival ranged from 63 to 87% with the highest survival achieved with feed III. Significantly higher growth (1.14 g/prawn) was achieved in diets I, II, and IV.