Evaluation of different live food organisms on growth and survival of river catfish, Mystus nemurus (C&V) larvae

Abstract

Mystus nemurus is one of the most commercially important freshwater fish in Malaysia. Even though artificial breeding or reproduction of M. nemurus is done in private hatcheries around Peninsular Malaysia, inadequate seed supply coupled with relatively high fingerling prices limits its production. Presently, the supply of fingerlings cannot satisfy the demand for fish farming due to some constraints on the larval rearing, so larval rearing of M. nemurus has yet to be improved in terms of nutrition requirement and suitable size of food for the larvae.

At present, the conventional method of fish larviculture using live food such as Artemia nauplii is being practiced by most Malaysian catfish hatchery operators. Using expensive live food like Artemia has made the mass production of catfish fry/fingerlings less profitable. Alternative measures are necessary in order to help minimize importation and use of Artemia. Indigenous species of live food organisms, which are great potential as feed and can easily be cultured and mass-produced at low cost, may be used as substitutes. Studies on those live foods are lacking, hence this study was conducted to determine the effect of different live foods on growth and survival of Mystus nemurus larvae.