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¹ The New College, Dept. of Zoology, Reproductive Biology and Live Feed Culture. Chennai-600 014, Tamilnadu, India
² St. Xaviers College, Centre of Aquaculture Research and Extension, Palayamkottai-627 002, Tamilnadu, India DOI : 10.4194/1303-2712-v11_4_05 Viewed : 4225 - Downloaded : 6547 One of the important cultivable indigenous finfish which deserves immediate attention for commercial scale seed production and farming is the snakehead, Channa striatus. Provision of suitable live feed is the bottleneck in rearing larvae of this fish. Culture performance of larval snakehead was examined in the present study by feeding them with cladocerans (Ceriodaphnia cornuta, Moina micrura and Daphnia carinata) and Artemia nauplii as individual and mixed cladoceran diet (C. cornuta, M. micrura and D. carinata) for four weeks. Fish fed Artemia nauplii, C. cornuta and mixed cladocerans showed higher weight gain (15.88±0.11 mg), (9.72±0.04 mg) and (10.0±0.06 mg) respectively during the I^st week. Fish fed C. cornuta and M. micrura showed better weight gain (12.88±0.21 mg) and (11.90±0.09 mg) respectively during the 2^nd week. Fish fed on mixed cladocerans showed better survival and growth with less cannibalism in the last three weeks. Fish fed Artemia nauplii showed less growth and more cannibalism during the last two weeks. It is concluded that C. striatus larvae could be fed cladocerans both individually as well as in mixed preparation during their early life stages. The nauplii of the brine shrimp Artemia which are extensively used in hatcheries are exotic and highly priced resulting in higher cost of seed production. Use of cladocerans for early larval rearing of C. striatus will reduce the expenditure for seed production. It is also observed that with the increase in age and growth, the fish prefers large sized prey than the smaller ones. Cannibalism can be reduced at different stages by providing prey of suitable size to the growing fish. Keywords : Larval rearing, Channa striatus, live feed, cannibalism