A feeding experiment was conducted to investigate the effect
of Bacillus subtilis bacterium, on larval growth and development
rate of Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man) during
February 28 to April 8, 2005 in University Putra Malaysia
hatchery. Newly hatched larvae of M. rosenbergii were reared
with two dietary treatments consisting of newly hatched
Artemia salina nauplii with B. subtilis (108 cells ml)1
), and
newly hatched A. salina nauplii without B. subtilis carried out
in triplicate in 60-L aquarium (50 L)1
). After trial, the larvae
that fed B. subtilis-treated Artemia naupli were found to have
higher survival and a faster rate of metamorphosis than
larvae that were fed with nontreated Artemia naupli. There
were significant differences between B. subtilis-treated Artemia
naupli and nontreated Artemia diet in larval growth and
development rate of metamorphosis (P < 0.05). Larval survival
after 40 days was significantly greater (P < 0.05) in the
B. subtilis-treated groups (55.3 ± 1.02) compared with the
nontreated groups (36.2 ± 5.02%)