Evaluation of Tomato pulp Concentrate as a Feed Attractant for Post-larvae of Macrobrachium rosenbergii (De Man, 1879)

Abstract

Tomatoes are known to be the richest source of
glutamic acid and aspartic acid which give the
“Umami flavorâ€. In this study, tomato pulp incorporated
prawn feeds and control were subjected to
feeding stimuli experiments in post larvae of giant
freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) (De
Man, 1879) in a “Y- maze†tank. The Mean reaching
time was measured as 701.4 ± 52.11 sec, in
experiments with control while the same in test
feeds T1 and T2 were only 278.7 ± 25.2 and 39.95
± 3.68 sec, respectively. ANOVA results revealed a
significant difference between the three treatments
(f= 100.02, p<0.001). The results revealed that tomato
pulp could be considered as a feed attractant for
prawn feeds owing to the high content of glutamic
acid in tomato. Its use can sustainably reduce feed
costs besides increasing the feed consumption.