A Comparison of Artificial and Natural Diets for Growth and Survival of Stinging Catfish Heteropneustes fossilis Larvae

The present experiment was conducted to evaluate growth performances and survival of stinging catfish, Heteropneustes fossilis larvae fed different larval diets, viz., artificial diet, egg custard, live Artemia nauplii (LAN), frozen Artemia nauplii (FAN), and wild mixed zooplankton (WMZ). Induced bred larvae (5- day old) of stinging catfish were fed on the experimental diets for 21 days. The larvae-fed LAN showed significantly the highest growth performances (Average final weight= 475.2 mg;  specific growth rate =28.37% day^-1). In addition, WMZ showed better growth performances (Average final weight of 204.4 mg; the specific growth rate of 24.35% day^-1), compared to the artificial diet (Average final weight= 40.4 mg; specific growth rate= 16.62% day^-1).  While, no growth performance was detected for FAN (Average final weight of 192.1 mg; the specific growth rate of 24.05% day^-1), compared to LAN.  Egg custard showed poor growth performances (Average final weight= 110.7 mg; specific growth rate= 21.43% day^-1); however, still better than the artificial diet.  The survivability of larvae was affected by the diets supplied and exhibited a pattern similar to that of the growth performances. Therefore, based on the results, LAN was the best for feeding stinging catfish larvae. However, as the performance of WMZ was better than the artificial diet and considering the high cost of Artemia cysts, WMZ can be recommended as a cost-effective larval feed for stinging catfish.