Evaluation of an artificial diet for use in the culture of the tropical abalone Haliotis ovina.

摘要

A wet artificial diet coated with agar was tested in triplicate on a batch of wild H. ovina during a 74-day experiment. This particular species of abalone would not feed on artificial or natural diets under captivity. Therefore, to test whether theabalone was able to consume the feed, a group in triplicate was chosen as a negative control (with no feed). All abalone were fed equally during the first 48 days, followed by 26 days where the control group were not fed (starvation period). No difference in growth was observed in unfed or fed abalone but differences were observed for specific growth rate (SGR). Analysis of covariance showed differences between groups, in length and weight. Though some of the fed abalone showed growth rates in length higher than 82 鎚 daily, growth was generally lower than expected when compared with other abalone species. It is concluded that the abalone is able to eat the test diet though the batch used in the present study (obtained from the natural environment) showed high variations in growth rates.