ABSTRACT
The hatchery is one of the most critical stages of the development of fish and their success is directly related to food handling that can provide greater survival and growth. The aim of this study was to evaluate the time of dietary transition and providing meta-nauplii of Artemia spp. (MNA) for the angelfish larvae. Two experiments were conducted in a completely randomized design with five treatments and four repetitions. On each experiment there were used 540 fishes, distributed in 20 tanks with 2 liters each. In the first experiment, there were evaluated the dietary transition periods (MNA + Diet) for 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 days. In the second experiment, there were evaluated the supply of MNA for 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 days. There were evaluated: weight gain, growth rate and specific development, survival and batch uniformity (only in the experiment to evaluate the time of fish feed with MNA). There was no significant effect of different periods of dietary transition on the growth variables (p>0.05), but survival was higher (p<0.05) in the treatments composed of 3, 4 and 5 days of joint feed. In relation to the time of supply of MNA worse results were observed (p<0.05) when the time of supply of live food was shorter (5, 10 and 15 days). The animals were fed with MNA before feeding transition, for longer time (20 and 25) showed the best results for growth (p<0.05). Therefore, a food transition of three days and a supply of MNA for 20 days is recommended to perform the total replacement of live food for feed.
Keywords:
Feeding; ornamental fish; feed; survival
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