Effect of supplementing Probiotics (Prosol) on the Performance of Giant Freshwater Prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) Juveniles

A 45 days experiment was conducted in fifteen experimental tanks with a view to evaluate the impact of supplementing probiotics ‘Prosol’ in diet of giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii juveniles. Seventy five juveniles (7.26 ± 0.48 g mean weight) were divided into five experimental groups each with three replicates. Five experimental diets were formulated with different levels of probioticsviz. control diet (F0) had no ‘Prosol’ and diet 1 (F1), diet 2 (F2), diet 3 (F3) and diet 4 (F4) having 1, 2, 3 and 4% of Prosol, respectively. Significantly higher growth (P<0.05), for final body weight (23.96 ± 4.1 g), net body weight gain (16.70 ± 3.75 g) and specific growth rate (2.39 ± 0.32% bw d-1) was recorded in prawn fed diet containing 2% probiotics (F2). In addition, the apparent feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio in dietary treatments having probiotics were significantly better (P<0.05) than those fed the control diet. No significant differences (P>0.05) were observed among different treatments in carcass moisture and ash content, while protein content (61.4 ± 2.2%) was the highest and lipid contents (8.16 ± 0.5%) were lowest when fed on diet F2. The results of the present study indicated that the addition of ‘Prosol’ as growth promoter in the diet at 2% may be useful for profitable culture of M. rosenbergii juveniles.