The objective of this research was to verify the effect of feeding supplement with Artemia franciscana on the south american catfish larvae (Rhamdia quelen) performance. The treatments were: T1 - Nauplii suplement with Artemia during seven days; T2 - Cyst supplement of Artemia during seven days; T3 - Nauplii supplement of Artemia during three days; T4 - Cyst supplement of Artemia during three days; T5 - No supplement. Each treatment had four replicates. The experiment was accomplished in re-use water system during twenty days. In all treatments, larvae have received ad libitum dry food with 41% of crude protein and 4293Kcal gross energy by kg. The results have shown that the supplementation with Artemia nauplii enhanced a better growth comparing with the ones with cysts or only ration (no supplementation). In relation to weight and weight versus survival rate, it was observed significant differences from treatments 1 and 3 (nauplii) to treatments 2 and 4 (cysts). The low survival rate of T5 was responsible for the worst result of this treatment in relation to weight versus survival rate. However, no significant differences were observed betwenn T2 and T4 regarding to weight. It was not observed significant differences in relation to survival between the treatments which have received cysts and nauplii of Artemia. Only T5 presented lower survival rates comparing with the others. The best Specific Growth Rate was of 25.6 and 25.4% a day, respectively for T1 and T3 during the 20 days of experimental period.
larviculture; Rhamdia; Pimelodidae; feeding; Artemia
