PERFORMANCE TESTING OF 100-g NURSERY SIZE LOBSTER FED THE ACIAR BENCHMARK FEED PRODUCED WITH INGREDIENTS SOURCED LOCALLY IN INDONESIA

The production and use of a pellet is likely to start in farming of lobster at the village level and consist of a feed made from locally available ingredients. Previous studies have shown that feed for Nursery size lobsters should be semi moist and contain fishery product (>12%) to achieve optimal growth.  The objectives of this study were first, successful production of a high performing locally produced feed will enable demonstration testing and further studies to refine the formulation. The second objective was to compare the growth performance of lobsters fed an identical feed which varies only in dry matter content.

The experiment was conducted to assess the growth and survival of lobsters offered different feeds. Twenty-five net cages (2m x 2m) were used in this experiment. The experiment was run as 5 treatments; each being replicated 5 times. Thirty lobsters in the calculated ideal weight range (100 ± 1g) were allocated to each of the 25 cages. The designed treatments were as follows:

A.      IMRAD feed (moist), with imported fishmeal

B.      IMRAD feed (moist), similar formulation to A with local fishmeal

C.      IMRAD feed (dry), the same formulation as B

D.      IMRAD feed (dry), with high protein,  no fresh ingredient

E.      Trash fish

Survival for all treatments after 12 weeks rearing was around 80% (Figure 1). Lobster fed diet with local fishmeal (B) and high protein (D) showed high survival, whereas lobster fed trash fish (E) had low survival. The survival was dramatically decreased after 18 weeks rearing because of Milky Hemolymph Disease (MHD) outbreaks that were detected by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) analysis.

Highest growth was achieved from local fishmeal feed and trash fish. Whereas lowest growth with imported fishmeal and high protein (Figure 2).