Food utilization by Haliotis asinina Linnaeus

Abstract

Experiments on food utilization by the Thai abalone, Haliotis asinina, were conducted over a period of 6 mo with nine species of macroalgae - Acanthophora spicifera, Gracilaria fisheri, Gracilaria salicornia, Gracilaria tenuistipitata, Enteromorpha intestinalis, Caulerpa racemosa, Dictyota dichotoma, Padina minor, and Sargassum polycystum. The highest growth rate (70.3 ± 3.4 μm/day in shell length; 23.6 ± 2.4 mg/day in weight), highest survival rate (95.6 ± 1.6%), and the best food conversion rate (3.3 ± 0.5) were obtained with the red alga, G. tenuistipitata. The brown alga, P. minor, gave the lowest growth (2.1 ± 3.0 μm/day in shell length; -0.3 ± 0.3 mg/day in weight) and survival (7.8 ± 1.6%) rates. The proximate composition of these nine species of algae was determined to suggest correlation with growth rates. G. tenuistipitata was found to have the highest content of protein and carbohydrate.