Voluntary intake of dry matter by freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii)

The experiment was conducted with freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) at three weights (Sizes A = 88.56 +/- 12.04 g, B = 33.67 +/- 5.77 g, and C = 48.43 +/- 0.65 g) to evaluate the voluntary intake of dry matter of three diets: a semipurified diet (LANEA 101) and two others with 30% of the LANEA 101 diet replaced by either dehydrated or heated cassava and named LANEA 102 and LANEA 103 diets, respectively. Daily intake as a percentage of liveweight for prawn of size A was 2.21% for the LANEA 101 reference diet; with the LANEA 102 diet, prawn consumed 1.90 and 2.03% for sizes B and C, respectively, and with LANEA 103 diet, the voluntary intake of dry matter was 1.85 and 1.87% for sizes B and C, respectively. Although the intake of LANEA 101 was significantly better than the other two, there was no difference in intake among the different size of prawn and the feeding behavior was typically intermittent.