February 15-18, 2009 Washington State Convention Center Seattle ...

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USE OF MICROENCAPSULATED DIET FOR PACU Piaractus mesopotamicus LARVAE
Olívia C. C. Menossi, Manuel Yúfera, Rodrigo Takata, Maria I. Sánchez-Amaya , Thiago M. de Freitas,
Natalia de J. Leitão and Maria Célia Portella*
Sao Paulo State University - Aquaculture Center
14.884-900, Jaboticabal, SP, Brazil
portella@caunesp.unesp.br
A critical problem for the rearing of altricial larvae is the use of formulated diet and also the knowledge of the best time for
its introduction. The pacu Piaractus mesopotamicus is an important fish in South America and research has been carried to
improve the feeding management of the species, particularly during the larval phase. Amongst the different types of formulated
diet, the microcapsulated diet has been recognized mainly due to its capacity of nutrients retention. In this study we have evaluated
the use of three different formulated diets as first exogenous feed and a protocol to wean pacu larvae. Four-day old pacu
larvae (12 larvae/L) were fed for 22 days, five times a day. The treatments were: ART: Artemia nauplii in increased amount
during the experiment (positive control); S: No food was provided and larvae starved (negative control); DI: exclusively commercial
diet NRD1.2/2.0 (Inve, USA) throughout the experiment; DP: exclusively Poli-Peixe diet 450F (PoliNutri, Brazil);
DM: experimental microencapsulated diet throughout the experiment; and A6DI, A6DP and A6DM: Artemia nauplii from the
4 th to 9 th days after hatching (DAH), co-feeding (Artemia nauplii + the respective formulated diet) from the 10 th to 15 th DAH,
and only the formulated diet after this period.
Amongst the treatments that have received the formulated diets as exclusive food, only few larvae from the treatment DP were
alive at the end of experiment even thought in the lowest survival rate (P