EVALUATION OF POLYCHAETE Nereis cultrifera MEAL AS AN INGREDIENT IN SHRIMP BROODSTOCK FEED

Marine Polychaete Worms, both wildly collected and farmed are used as live bait for fishing and majorly as live broodstock feed in Shrimp hatcheries. In this study naturally collected polychaete worms were freeze dried and added as an ingredient in formulated shrimp broodstock diet. The experiment was carried out for fourty five days. Ten L.vannamei brooders of which five males and five males were made into a batch. Four such batches were stocked in individual tanks and fed with four different types of pellet diet,  with six time feed intervals in a day. Feed is formulated using base ingredient as 30%, 60% and 100%  freeze dried polychaete meal replacing proportionate quantity of fish meal. Growth characteristics, feed acceptability and FCR were tested and the experiment shown that the feed formulated with 60% of polychaete meal has shown a better growth rate compared to other formulations.