Nursing of Freshwater Prawn: Through Artificial Substrates in Re-circulatory System for Better Growth and Survival

There has been a very rapid global expansion of freshwater prawn farming since 1990; this is mainly because of the huge production of China but also, in the last few years, because of a rapid take-off of farming in India and Bangladesh. Survival at the end of the nursery phase can vary substantially and may be related to the territorial and cannibalistic nature of prawn PLs when cultured at high densities. Nursery production may be enhanced by the addition of artificial substrates. Seed cost is a dominant variable cost in prawn production. Thereby, cost efficiency of nurseries significantly impacts the prices of stocker size juveniles, which in turn has a dramatic influence on the profitability of prawn grow-out. Therefore, investigation into potential benefits derived from using artificial substrates, a study was conducted in recirculatory system to evaluate the effects of substrates on the growth and survival of Macrobrachium rosenbergii postlarvae (PL). Result of the present study indicated that growth of M. rosenbergii PLs improved in presence of artificial substrates but the artificial substrates did not improved survival.