Types of Feed for Giant Prawns for Cultivation

One of the leading commodities that have high economic value from the freshwater aquaculture sector is giant prawns (M. rosenbergii). Giant prawn feed is divided into two, namely natural feed and artificial feed. Sometimes farmers choose natural and artificial feed to control feed production costs, because natural feed tends to be cheaper than buying ready-made feed.

Even so, it is important for you to know the types of natural and artificial feed and how to make feed for giant prawns. Let's see the explanation here!

Natural Food for Giant Prawns

Natural food is live food for shrimp which has the advantages of high nutrient content, easy mass production, and attractive movements for giant prawns so they are easy to catch. In addition, natural food is easy to digest because the shape and size of the body match the width of the predator's mouth opening.

The natural food commonly used by giant prawn farmers is Artemia sp., Daphnia sp., Moina sp., Culex sp., and Tubifex sp.. The following are types of natural feed commonly used by giant prawn farmers.

The type of natural feed that has a high protein value is artemia or artemia nauplii. Artemia has features compared to other natural feeds, such as tolerance to levels wide range of salts and dissolved oxygen levels. In addition, artemia contains high nutritional value for the growth of giant prawns and has a slow movement.

This slow movement is used by giant prawns for easy consumption. Artemia is the best choice because it has a relatively small size with a weight of 15 micrograms, a length of about 400 microns or 0.4 mm, and a protein content of about 63% of dry weight.

Giant Prawn Feed

It is important for farmers to know the nutrition of giant prawn feed needed to support the success of giant prawn cultivation. The following is the nutritional content needed by giant prawns on artificial feed:

Artificial feed that is spread in ponds has the characteristic of not moving on the surface of pond ponds. This causes the giant prawns to eat artificial feed less voraciously, resulting in an unfavorable impact in terms of water quality and shrimp growth.

In terms of water quality, this incident will easily change the water parameters because the shrimp do not completely use up the stocked artificial feed, so the giant prawn feed settles. This also causes the nutritional value of giant prawns needed for growth and development to be less or lower.   

In this case, buoyancy (buoyancy) Artificial feed is one of the solutions to reduce the rate of cannibalism during the giant prawn cultivation process. It is hoped that the giant prawns will be able to fulfill their nutritional value by eating away the floating feed so that they can accelerate the growth rate and increase the survival rate during the prawn cultivation process.

How to make giant prawn feed

The stages of making pole feed start from weighing all the ingredients to be used according to the dosage of each ingredient. The raw material used is squid which has high protein. Here's how to make giant prawn feed using squid:

1. Clean the squid from the skin and grind the squid until smooth using a blender.
2. Use the egg yolks that have been separated from the egg whites and put them in the bowl.
3. Stir until homogeneous and expand to become more tender and soft.
4. Add the flour, sugar and yeast little by little, then stir until evenly distributed.
5. Add oil to the squid mixture so that the dough can expand optimally.
6. Mix milk and cold water into the artificial feed mixture.
7. Stir until evenly distributed and turn into a smooth.
8. Store the dough in a closed and warm place.
9. Wait 30 minutes for the artificial feed mixture to expand.
10. Put the artificial feed mixture into the oven at 185 °C for 20 minutes.
11. Once cooked, remove the feed and cool it.
12. If you want to make the artificial feed into the same size, use a special pellet maker. 

Consult the Use of Giant Prawn Feed Only on the eFarm Application!