Effects of traditional Chinese medicines on growth, feed utilization and biochemical composition in muscle of juvenile shrimp, Penaeus monodon

This study was conducted to determine the weight gain (WG), survival, feed conversion (FCR), and biological composition and amino acids in the muscle of Penaeus monodon juvenile (initial weight 0.30 g). Shrimp were fed six different diets: diet 1 was a basal diet, diet 2, diet 3, diet 4, diet 5 and diet 6 were supplemented with 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 and 8.0 g traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) per kg diet, respectively. Survival, FCR and PER of the shrimp fed trial diets were superior to the control significantly (P < 0.05) except for diet 2. WG of the shrimp fed diet 3 were higher than diet 1, but there was not significantly different. There was no significant difference in the percent of moisture and protein in the muscle of shrimp fed test diets compared with the control. However, the content of lipid decreased when the TCMs increased in the diets. The result showed that optimal dietary TCMs levels could raise the survival and growth, and change the content of lipid and amino acids in the muscle of tiger shrimp.