Commercial feed and frozen Artemia nauplii for curimatã-pacu larvae in first feeding

The objective of this work was to evaluate the supply of frozen Artemia nauplii, commercial ration, and co-feed with frozen Artemia nauplii and commercial ration on the productive performance and water quality in the larviculture of curimata-pacu Prochilodus argenteus. The larvae were cultivated for 21 days under the following feed treatments: 100F (100% commercial feed); 67F33A (67% commercial feed and 33% fronzen Artemia nauplii); 34F66A (34% commercial feed and 66% frozen Artemia nauplii); and 100A (100% frozen Artemia nauplii). The larvae submitted to the feed treatments did not differ in performance, survival, weight, total and standard lengths, Fulton’s condition factor and specific growth rate. Commercial ration increased ammonia concentrations, impairing water quality, while Artemia supply provided low concentrations of ammonia, partially due to easy cleaning. Therefore, frozen Artemia nauplii should be used in the curimata-pacu larviculture.