A PALATABILITY BIOASSAY FOR DETERMINING INGESTIVE STIMULI IN THE MARINE SHRIMP PENAEUS-VANNAMEI

A feeding bioassay which uses apr discs was developed for evaluating chemosensory stimuli influencing ingestive behavior in Penaeus vannamei. Agar disc hardness and preventing the shrimp from placing their mouthparts directly onto the stimulus discs were important aspects of the bioassay design. The palatability assay required only small amounts of stimuli, was suitable for rapid screening of a wide variety of compounds, and was independent of factors such as texture or size of feed pellets. The most effective stimulus tested was shrimp-head offal extract, indicating the best use of this material may be as a flavorant rather than as a source of nutrients. Greatest biological activity was in the < 1000 M.W. fractions of the extracts.