Plankton, Artemia sp, artificial diet and their combinations on the development and survival of goldfish (Carassius auratus) during larviculture phase

Abstract

The aim of this study was to verify the influence of different diets on the development of goldfish (Carassius auratus) larvae and determine the best diet management during its larviculture phase. The experimental design was totally randomized with five treatments and four replicatess, using Tukey test for statistical analysis. Twenty 10L-aquariums were used, where twenty larvae with 5.20 mm length were stocked per aquarium. Quinguio larvae were fed daily ration of different diets: ration alone including 56.00% crude protein (R), plankton (PL), Artemia sp nauplii (AN), ration + plankton (R+PL) and ration + Artemia sp nauplii (R+AN), ad libitum twice a day. Treatment R caused the death of all individuals. AN and R+AN diets provided a higher survival rate (p < 0.05) than PL and R+PL diets. On the other hand, the mean final weight of the larvae fed with R+AN was higher (p < 0.05) than that of the larvae fed with AN. As for mean final length no significant difference (p > 0.05) was observed between the different treatments. Under the conditions of the present experiment, the results led to the conclusion that the different food sources influence the larvae performance, and that the ration + Artemia sp nauplii diet management is the most adequate to goldfish larviculture