Effect of paddy straw and sugarcane bagasse on growth and survival of giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man, 1879)

Effect of artificial substrates on growth and survival of giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man, 1879)in the nursery and grow-out rearing was evaluated. Nursery rearing was conducted for a period of 35 days in nine 1 m3cement tubs with 15 cm soil base. Three tubs without substrates served as control (C) while three tubs each with 200 g ofsugarcane bagasse (SB) or 200 g of paddy straw (PS) formed the treatments. Each tub was stocked with 15 post-larvae(mean weight, 0.01 g). Grow-out rearing was conducted for 90 days in six 25 m2 cement cisterns, of which three cisternswithout substrate served as control (C) and three with 5 kg sugarcane bagasse (SB) served as treatment. Each cistern wasstocked with 25 juveniles (mean weight, 0.55 g). The average phytoplankton and zooplankton abundance in water as wellas algae and food organisms attached on the substrate in the nursery phase was greater in bagasse than in paddy strawtreatments. Addition of substrate resulted in higher growth and survival both in nursery and grow-out phase. Prawns grownin cisterns provided with substrates were of more uniform size than those in control cisterns. The study recommends the useof substrate based aquaculture for nursery and grow-out rearing of M. rosenbergii.