Effects of live, artificial and mixed feeds on the growth and energy budget of Penaeus vannamei

Abstract Penaeus vannamei is one of the largest yield of shrimp aquaculture in the world, which has efficient feed conversion rate, fast growth rate and exhibits high tolerance to poor culture water conditions and with high market demand. However, bottlenecks in culture exist, such as environmental issues caused by culture intensification and quantities of artificial feeds increase, and disease outbreaks occur with increased frequency. We assessed effects of feeding P. vannamei for 35 days with live, artificial and mixed feeds on its feeding activity, growth and energy budget. Our results indicate that growth of mixed feed group to be significantly higher than that of live or artificial feed group (P