Purge lecithin for less-expensive diet formulation for black tiger prawn Penaeus monodon

The knowledge of the nutrient requirements and practical diet formulations for Penaeus monodon is fully known. In the production cost, the cost of diet alone comes around 50 to70%. This ismainly because of the addition of lecithin which is a relatively expensive dietary ingredient. It isimportant to determine the usefulness of lecithin in the growth of P. monodon. In order to keep the dietcost as low as possible this experiment was designed with and without lecithin. The objective of thepresent study was to assess the growth of shrimp with varying lecithin doses. To study the water qualityparameters and to study the growth and survival of animals feed containing different percentage oflecithin. Trials conducted indicated the soybean lecithin did not have any effect on shrimp’s growth. Theshrimp weight varied from 3.15 to 8g in Control, 2.58 to 6g in Treatment A, 2.87 to 6.62g in TreatmentB, 3.1 to 6.75g in Treatment C. These confirm that under a controlled clear water culture system, partialor complete replacement of soybean lecithin in a commercial diet for P. monodon resulted in nodetriment in growth. Purge lecithin in the diet may allow for less-expensive diet formulations for P.monodon and may reduce the diet cost for producers, who are supplying feed. As diet cost representsthe largest variable cost in a commercial aquaculture operation, increased knowledge of specific dietaryrequirements is essential for formulating a cost-effective commercial P. monodon diet.