A comparative study on the nutritional value of three Polychaete species used in Shrimp Aquaculture

Abstract

The potential use of polychaete worms are as a dietary source of protein, lipid, amino acids, and vitamins for aquaculture species and also used for alternative feeds of fish meal and fish oils. Many recent studies have been documented the nutritional benefits of polychaetes for aquaculture species, for their satisfactory food intake and reproductive performance in brood stock.Most of the polychaetes were  used in hatcheries are wild caught. The commercial harvesting of polychaetes may leads to the disturbance in the benthic community and the ecosystem and also may leads to the depleting population in the ecosystem. Further the development of polychaete culture is therefore of economic importance beyond that the associated bait supply industry which is acted as the initial catalyst for this development. Hence, the present study has been made with three different polychaete species, to assess the nutritional value of the three species, one from imported (Nereis virens) and two locally available species (Perenereis cultrifera and Glycera sp) for commercial uses of the shrimp aquaculture industry.

Key words : Polychaete worms, Perenereis species, fatty acids. amino acids, Minerals.