Co-feeding using live food and feed as first feeding for the small catfish Trachelyopterus galeatus (Linnaeus 1766)

ABSTRACT This study evaluated the effect of co-feeding with commercial feed and live food (enriched or not with microalgae) on the growth and survival of Trachelyopterus galeatus larvae. Five treatments were carried out: commercial feed as a control (F); brine shrimp nauplii (BS); brine shrimp nauplii enriched with Chaetoceros sp. Microalgae (BSM); combined feed with brine shrimp nauplii (F+BS) and combined feed with brine shrimp nauplii enriched with microalgae (FBSM). The larvae (5.00±0.02 mg and 5.95±0.33mm) were reared for 30 days. There were no significant differences (P>0.05) in water quality between treatments, but there were significant differences in weight, weight gain and survival. The F+BS and F+BSM treatments, which involved co-feeding, showed the best results in final weight (0.168±0.004g and 0.169±0.007g) and weight gain (0.1278±0.004 g and 0.1294±0.007g), respectively. The treatments with live food, enriched or not, showed high survival rates of over 73%, with no significant differences between them. On the other hand, the exclusive use of feed resulted in low survival (36.7 ± 9.53%), indicating that this may result in low growth and make the production of T. galeatus larvae unfeasible.