Microencapsulated diet as supplemental food for larvae and spat of the pearl oyster Pinctada fucata

Abstract

The flagellate Isochrysis galbana was found to be the best natural food for the pearl oyster larvae. TO supplement thir, artificial microencapsulated diet was prepared using edible oyster oil, fish oil and Soybean lecithin with a view of enhancing the growth of pearl oyster larvae and spat. Different concentrations of edible oyster oil diet, fish oil diet and lecithin diet were tried by keeping a control wherein I. galbana was alone given as feed. The control with I. galbana gave good results. Among the artificial diets tested the edible oyster oil diet showed better results on the growth of larvae and spat while the fish oil diet promoted weight gain in the spat. The suit3bility of the microencapsulated diet for the larvae and spat is discussed in this paper.