Effect of tank colour on foraging capacity, growth and survival of milkfish (Chanos chanos) larvae

• Published in: Aquaculture 2019-10, Vol.512, p.734347, Article 734347
• Main Authors: Bera, Aritra, Kailasam, M., Mandal, Babita, Sukumaran, Krishna, Makesh, M., Hussain, Tanveer, Sivaramakrishnan, T., Subburaj, R., Thiagarajan, G., Vijayan, K.K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Foraging capacity; Larval rearing; Milkfish; Prey visibility; Yellow tank
• ISSN: 0044-8486; 1873-5622
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aquaculture.2019.734347

Larviculture of milkfish (Chanos chanos) associated with issues like larval deformity, mass mortalities which contribute in variable seed production. Effect of abiotic factors as rearing tank colour and illumination on larvae foraging behaviour, prey localization and ingestion were investigated to improvise milkfish larval rearing system. Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) tanks (capacity, 8 t; water salinity, 32 ppt) with three different background colors, white, blue and yellow were divided in five (05) treatment groups with triplicates, i.e. indoor white (T1/C), blue (T2), yellow (T3) color tanks with artificial illumination and semi outdoor blue (T4), yellow (T5) color tanks with solar illumination. Newly hatched milkfish larvae (tl., 3.4 mm) were stocked in the experimental tanks @ 2.5 no l−1 and apart from background colour and source of illumination uniform water quality and feeding regime were maintained in all treatments. Phytoplankton, Chlorella salina @ 103–104 cells ml−1 were maintained from 2 dph to 20 dph; Chlorella grown rotifers, Brachionus plicatilis (enriched with Nannochloropsis oculata paste) were provided @ 20–30 no ml−1 from 3 dph to 14 dph depending on the larval density. Artemia nauplii @ 0.5–1.0 no ml−1 was introduced from 15 dph. At the end of the experiment- 20 dph, highest (p