Growth performance of Asian clam corbicula fluminea (Müller, 1774) fed with different feeds in laboratory scale culture system

Abstract

A sixty days feeding trial was conducted on the growth performance of Asian clam Corbicula fluminea (Müller, 1774), restricted to pedal-feeding in response to different diets; 1) fermented soy pulp (FSP), 2) treated quail dung (TQD), 3) chemical fertiliser (NPK) and 4) control group; based on the growth rate of dry body weight and shell length, length-weight relationship, condition factor and daily consumption of organic matter. The findings revealed that NPK exhibited the highest growth for shell length with the increase of 21.0 ± 3.00 µm.day-1, followed by FSP 17.0 ± 3.00 µm.day-1, which was significantly higher (P ≤ 0.05) than TQD 6.0 ± 1.80 µm.day-1 and the control group 3.0 ± 0.1 µm.day-1. Fermented soy pulp indicated the highest growth performance based on dry weight of C. fluminea with 10.0 ± 0.40 µg.day-1 followed by NPK at 8.0 ± 0.30 µg.day-1, that was significantly different than TQD at 3.0 ± 0.10 µg.day-1 and the control at-5.0 ± 0.5 µg.day-1. The length-weight relationship demonstrated negative allometric growth for all treatments except for the control, while low Fulton’s body condition factor (K) was observed in all treatments. The daily organic matter consumption was the highest for TQD (1.20 µg.clam-1.day-1), followed by NPK (0.67 µg.clam-1.day-1), FSP (0.28 µg.clam-1.day-1) and control treatment (-042 µg.clam-1.day-1). The recorded water parameters were similar to the ambient condition of C. fluminea habitat, which excludes TSS and turbidity. These findings suggest that both NPK and FSP could be utilised to promote higher growth performance of C. fluminea.