Reproductive Studies on Preparation of Whiteleg Shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei Broodstock in Commercial Hatcheries

The current study was conducted to identify and analyze the best practices that can be followed in the white leg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) hatcheries for the good preparation of the broodstock applying for a period of 30 days and to indicate the readiness of the broodstock to start the hatching season. Three feeding programs which have two types of worms (blood worms and clam worms) were used, where the first treatment fed on 100% of (bloodworms), the second treatment fed on (blood worms and clam worms 50%:50%), However the third treatment fed on100% (clam worms). The experiments were evaluated in terms of (broodstock spawning rate – Gonadosomatic index - number of eggs - hatching rate - number of nauplii and number of spawning cycles). The results showed that the feeding protocol that contains blood worms increase the quality and efficiency of reproductive performance of white leg  shrimp (L. vannamei), as it contained higher percentage of protein, vitamins, minerals, amino acids and unsaturated fatty acids, which are of great importance in the process of hatching and producing egg. In the present study, the feeding regime T1 which consists of 12% blood worms, 12% squid and 1% dry pellets showed the best reproductive performance of L. vannamei than other feeding regime while group of shrimp fed on clam worms showed lowest quality and reproductive performance