EFFECT OF FEEDING FREQUENCY ON SURVIVAL AND GROWTH OF JUVENILE  BAMBOO SPINY LOBSTER Panulirus versicolor IN INDONESIA

In 2015 the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries introduced a new regulation No. 1 / PERMEN-KP / 2015 specifying a minimum legal size for spiny lobster of 8cm carapace length. This effectively banned the export of lobsters smaller than 8cm carapace length, but provided opportunity for growout of seed lobsters to exceed the minimum legal size and provide an economic benefit to Indonesia. In Aceh, the tropical Bamboo spiny lobster Panulirus versicolor, is a common species, and potentially a suitable candidate for aquaculture. Vietnam provides a good example of the success of spiny lobster farming, and methods applied there are being assessed in Indonesia. The success of Vietnam lobster farming is based to a large extent on knowledge of the nutrient requirements of the lobsters which can be applied to formulation of manufactured diets. To date however, there has been little research on feed management and feeding frequency for lobster farming. An experiment was performed to assess the effect of feeding frequency on juvenile lobsters in Indonesia.

The experiment used a completely randomized design. 352 bamboo spiny lobsters (Panulirus versicolor) with mean weight 0.48±0.51g were reared for 4 weeks in 16 circular 80L tanks within a closed recirculation system. Four feeding frequencies were applied to 4 replicate tanks. The treatments were: FR1 fed once per day, FR2 two times per day, FR3 three times per day and FR4 four times per day. Initial feed ration was 100% of biomass per day, progressively reduced to 50%, 30% and 25% of biomass by week 4 of the experiment. The diet consisted of a manufactured pellet, formulated through an associated research project (ACIAR FIS/2014/059 Expanding spiny lobster aquaculture in Indonesia) and manufactured by the Institute of Mariculture Research and Development of Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMA-BRKP Gondol). Analysis of survival and growth was performed using SPSS version 23.0.

After 4 weeks of culture using 4 different feeding frequencies, there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) for weight, carapace length, moult frequency,  specific growth rate (SGR), survival or food conversion ratio (FCR) (Table 1). Further research over a longer time period may be necessary to determine optimal feeding frequency for nursery culture.