Response of the tropical spiny lobster Panulirus ornatus to protein content of pelleted feed and to a diet of mussel flesh

Smith, D.M.; Williams, K.C.; Irvin, S.J.

Response of the tropical spiny lobster Panulirus ornatus to protein content of pelleted feed and to a diet of mussel flesh

2005

Smith, D.M. | Williams, K.C. | Irvin, S.J.

In an 8-week growth experiment, juvenile spiny lobsters (Panulirus ornatus) grew best on a feed containing at least 610 g kg(-1) crude protein on a dry matter basis (DM) and a digestible protein to digestible energy ratio of 29.8 mg kJ(-1). The study entailed a six treatment by four replicate randomized block experiment with 222 wild-caught P. ornatus of mean initial weight (+/-SD) of 2.5 +/- 0.19 g. The lobsters were fed one of five isolipidic feeds (approximately 130 g kg(-1) DM) in which the crude protein was serially incremented between 330 and 610 g kg(-1) DM, or a reference diet comprising the flesh of frozen green-lip mussels. Lobsters fed the pelleted feeds had high survival (79 +/- 4.5%) and responded to increasing dietary crude protein content with progressively higher growth rates, with the daily growth coefficient improving from 0.72% day(-1) with 330 g kg(-1) crude protein to 1.38% day(-1) with 610 g kg(-1) crude protein. Both growth rate and survival were low with the mussel diet (0.80% day(-1) and 41 +/- 4.5%, respectively). These results demonstrate that tropical spiny lobsters grow well when fed high-protein, high lipid, pelleted feeds, but feeding on a sole diet of freshly thawed green-lip mussels was unsatisfactory.

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