WATER TREATMENT TO ENHANCE PRODUCTION OF BLACK TIGER SHRIMP (Penaeus monodon Fabr) APPLYING PROBIOTICS  

The failure in shrimp pond aquaculture is a result of complex problems such as low water quality caused by water pollution. In addition, the use of low quality shrimp larvae also facilitates diseases outbreaks. The uncontrolled use of antibiotics results in resistant bacteria that can cause shrimp diseases. Therefore, the use of probiotics during shrimp larvae production is developed to control the growth of pathogenic bacteria, increases survival rate, vitality and growth of black tiger shrimp larvae. However, the effectiveness of probiotics can be reduced when the water quality in larvae rearing tanks is low. This study was aimed to analyze the effectiveness of several water quality management techniques for larvae production applying probiotics. This study was conducted in Research Installation for black tiger shrimp hatchery situated in Barru Regency, province of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The treatments applied in this study were: water was sterilized using 50 ppm of 60% calcium hypochlorite (Treatment A), membrane filter (Treatment B), pressure tank and settling reservoir (C, or control) with three replications for each treatment. A total of nine fiberglass tanks with capacity of two tones were used for larvae rearing during the study. The larvae rearing were initialed from stage of nauplii until post larvae 12. During the rearing, larvae were feed with chaetoceros sp., skeletonema sp., artemia and formulated feed. Approximately 10-30% of waters were exchanged daily which were started at mysis stage until larvae were harvested. The measurement of larvae growth and survival rate were conducted when the larvae completely their stadia. The results of this study showed that the use of membrane filter as water treatment resulted better survival rate (13%) compared to that measured on treatment B and C. In addition, the use of membrane filter increase growth rate and stage development on larvae. Therefore, membrane filter as water treatment is recommended to increase production of black tiger shrimp larvae in hatchery.