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Growth of market-size abalone (Haliotis midae) fed kelp (Ecklonia maxima) versus a low-protein commercial feed


TL Francis
GW Maneveldt
J Venter

Abstract

The growth of grow-out abalone fed on kelp, with c. 10 % dry weight protein content, was compared with that of those fed on ‘Feed A' (a new low-protein commercial feed of c. 26 % protein), in a flow-through system on a South African west coast commercial abalone farm. While both feeds produced similar gains in mean shell length (45.220 µm day–1 for kelp, 46.839 µm day–1 for ‘Feed A'), the latter group significantly outperformed the kelp-fed group in terms of weight gain (0.266 % body weight day–1 for ‘Feed-A' abalone; 0.257 % body weight day–1 for kelp-fed abalone). The ‘Feed-A' feed may prove to be of considerable benefit as a substitute for the kelp plus high-protein feed that is sometimes used for abalone, because the former has most of the benefits of the two feeds, but none of their apparent disadvantages.

Keywords: feed comparisons; formulated feeds; growth rates; kelp feeds; protein content; South Africa; weight gain

African Journal of Aquatic Science 2008, 33(3): 279–282

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eISSN: 1727-9364
print ISSN: 1608-5914