Spirulina is used as food supplement for human and animáis including fishbecause of its high nutritional valué. Spirulina is delivered as. dried pellets and / or powder for human as well as animal consumption. This mode of delivery has been verifíed to be less efficient due to loss of protein on drying. The current invention focuses on delivering spirulina in a live form, which will help in growth of these microalgae in the pond ecosystem by utilizing the existing carbón and nitrogen source produced from fish feces. Delivery of spirulina was done by blending 100 g harvested live spirulina (15% drymass) with viscous gelatin solution made from dissolving lOOg of gelatin in one liter of hot water. Gelatin is an edible substanceused in preparation of food producís. It is also acts as a stabilizing agent, thickener and texturizer. The blended mixture of live spirulina and gelatin is converted into jelly, by keeping it at temperature below 20 °C. This jelly mixture can be stored at 16 °C for at least 3 months. For field application, live spirulinajelly will be dissolved in water and sprayed into 1 acre of aquaculture pond. The fish feces containing inorganic and organic elements (nitrogen and carbón) were utilized by spirulinajelly for their growth, there by maintaining the equilibrium in the ecosystem of pond and thus forbidding the accumulation of these elements. Further, the spirulinajelly acts as a feed supplementfor fish, wherein it reduces feed consumption by 13% of DORB (ÍDeoxy rice brán) and 12% of pellet feed. On consumption ofspirulina jelly as feed supplement, the fishes wére found to gain weight by 5% in comparison to fishes found in control pond containing spirulinajelly less than 14%.
展开▼
