Effects of different combinations of diets on the growth and food conversion efficiency of Chinese shrimp, Fenneropenaeus chinensis

The five diets used in the experiment were: fish flesh (FF)—the flesh of sardine (Sardinella zunasi), which was got rid of head, scales, fins, bowels, and bones; shrimp flesh (SF) —the flesh of a small size shrimp (Trachypenaeus curvirostris), which was got rid of head and shell; clam foot (CF) —the foot of clam (Ruditapes varigata), which was cut from the clam; polychaete worm (PW) —Neanthes japonica worm; formulated diet (FD) —a commercial sold shrimp diet (Sea-Horse brand; producer: Fujian Mawei Unite Feed Ltd. Co., China; Ingredients: bean powder, fish powder, shrimp powder, compound vitamines, and compound minerals). Six different combinations of diets (CF+PW, CF+FD, PW+FD, CF+FD+PW, FF+FD+PW+FD, and FF+SF+CF+PW+FD) and five single diets (FF, SF, CF, PW, and FD) were designed to investigate their effects on the growth and food conversion efficiency (FCE) of Chinese shrimp, Fenneropenaeus chinensis. The shrimp fed with mixed diets grew faster than those fed with single diet except PW and the shrimp in CF+PW treatment was the highest in terms of final weight and weight gain. The food conversion efficiencies (FCE) in mixed diets treatments were higher than all single diet treatments except PW and also higher than the estimated food conversion efficiencies (eFCE). Besides this, all FCE of mixed diets treatments were significant higher than eFCE except that FCE of PW+FD and CF+FD+PW were higher than eFCE but not significant. The effects of the advantages of mixed diets treatments on dietary selection of shrimp and causation of the advantages were discussed.