Effect of protein sources in formulated diets on growth performance, feed utilization, survival rate, and reproductive performance of Artemia franciscana

The best diet for Artemia culture is phytoplankton; yet it is expensive and laborious work. Thus, cheaper and easily prepared feed such as formulated diet is required. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of different protein sources in formulated diets on growth performance, feed utilization, survival rate, fecundity, and nauplius production of Artemia franciscana. A total of 6,000 Artemia nauplii were randomly distributed equally into 20 rearing tanks (5 treatment groups with 4 replicates): Artemia fed with Tetraselmis chuii as control (T1), Artemia fed with a formulated diet with fish meal inclusion (T2), Artemia fed with the formulated diet with sergestid shrimp meal inclusion (T3), Artemia was fed with the formulated diet with soybean meal inclusion (T4), and formulated diet with Black Soldier Fly meal inclusion (T5). The results showed that protein sources in formulated diets had a significant effect on growth performances, feed utilization, survival rate, fecundity, and nauplius production of A. fransciscana (p < 0.05). The best result, in general, was obtained from the soybean meal-fed group (T4): specific growth rate in length (17.78% BL.d⁻¹), the specific growth rate in body weight (35.95% BW.d⁻¹), feed conversion ratio (1.37), feed efficiency (74.00 %), protein retention (64.07%), fat retention (55.93%), fecundity (44 eggs.broodstock⁻¹), and nauplius production (35 nauplii.broodstock⁻¹). While the highest energy retention was obtained from the control group (60.90%). These results suggest that soybean meal can be used as the protein source in formulated diets to replace phytoplankton usage in Artemia culture.