Growth and nutritional quality in giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii through live mealworm feeding with probiotic enrichment

To address the gap in sustainable aquaculture, a 17-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate locally-sourced mealworms, with and without Bacillus subtilis probiotic enrichment, as an alternative feed material for giant freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii), assessing their effects on grow...

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Main Authors: Sashwinie Murali, Teoh, Chaiw-Yee, Wong, Wey-Lim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2025
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25197/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25197/1/SMD%202.pdf
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author Sashwinie Murali,
Teoh, Chaiw-Yee
Wong, Wey-Lim
author_facet Sashwinie Murali,
Teoh, Chaiw-Yee
Wong, Wey-Lim
author_sort Sashwinie Murali,
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description To address the gap in sustainable aquaculture, a 17-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate locally-sourced mealworms, with and without Bacillus subtilis probiotic enrichment, as an alternative feed material for giant freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii), assessing their effects on growth, feed utilization, and nutritional composition. Five experimental diets were tested: commercial prawn feed (CPF), CPF combined with live mealworm (CPF+MW), mealworm alone (MW), probiotic-enriched mealworm (PMW), and CPF combined with probiotic-enriched mealworm (CPF+PMW). Triplicate groups of 20 prawns were randomly assigned to each diet. Weight gain among the groups ranged from 421.88% to 529.34%, with no significant differences observed (P > 0.05). Prawns fed CPF exhibited a significantly higher feed conversion ratio (FCR) (3.72 ± 0.32, P < 0.05), indicating less efficient feed utilization and leading to increased production costs. While CPF (45.01%) and MW (52.44%) diets differed significantly in crude protein content, the prawns fed CPF (59.24%) and MW (60.78%) showed similar crude protein levels. These results suggest that live mealworms are a viable alternative to commercial feed for GFP, maintaining growth performance and nutritional quality. Furthermore, combining live mealworms with commercial feed proves to be an effective feeding strategy, though enrichment with B. subtilis did not provide additional benefits for prawn growth or FCR.
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spelling oai:generic.eprints.org:251972025-05-08T03:58:00Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25197/ Growth and nutritional quality in giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii through live mealworm feeding with probiotic enrichment Sashwinie Murali, Teoh, Chaiw-Yee Wong, Wey-Lim To address the gap in sustainable aquaculture, a 17-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate locally-sourced mealworms, with and without Bacillus subtilis probiotic enrichment, as an alternative feed material for giant freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii), assessing their effects on growth, feed utilization, and nutritional composition. Five experimental diets were tested: commercial prawn feed (CPF), CPF combined with live mealworm (CPF+MW), mealworm alone (MW), probiotic-enriched mealworm (PMW), and CPF combined with probiotic-enriched mealworm (CPF+PMW). Triplicate groups of 20 prawns were randomly assigned to each diet. Weight gain among the groups ranged from 421.88% to 529.34%, with no significant differences observed (P > 0.05). Prawns fed CPF exhibited a significantly higher feed conversion ratio (FCR) (3.72 ± 0.32, P < 0.05), indicating less efficient feed utilization and leading to increased production costs. While CPF (45.01%) and MW (52.44%) diets differed significantly in crude protein content, the prawns fed CPF (59.24%) and MW (60.78%) showed similar crude protein levels. These results suggest that live mealworms are a viable alternative to commercial feed for GFP, maintaining growth performance and nutritional quality. Furthermore, combining live mealworms with commercial feed proves to be an effective feeding strategy, though enrichment with B. subtilis did not provide additional benefits for prawn growth or FCR. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2025 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25197/1/SMD%202.pdf Sashwinie Murali, and Teoh, Chaiw-Yee and Wong, Wey-Lim (2025) Growth and nutritional quality in giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii through live mealworm feeding with probiotic enrichment. Sains Malaysiana, 54 (3). pp. 629-640. ISSN 0126-6039 https://www.ukm.my/jsm/english_journals/vol54num3_2025/contentsVol54num3_2025.html
spellingShingle Sashwinie Murali,
Teoh, Chaiw-Yee
Wong, Wey-Lim
Growth and nutritional quality in giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii through live mealworm feeding with probiotic enrichment
title Growth and nutritional quality in giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii through live mealworm feeding with probiotic enrichment
title_full Growth and nutritional quality in giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii through live mealworm feeding with probiotic enrichment
title_fullStr Growth and nutritional quality in giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii through live mealworm feeding with probiotic enrichment
title_full_unstemmed Growth and nutritional quality in giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii through live mealworm feeding with probiotic enrichment
title_short Growth and nutritional quality in giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii through live mealworm feeding with probiotic enrichment
title_sort growth and nutritional quality in giant freshwater prawn, macrobrachium rosenbergii through live mealworm feeding with probiotic enrichment
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25197/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25197/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25197/1/SMD%202.pdf