This study examined the effects of early weaning strategies on growth and survival of the silver therapon Leiopotherapon plumbeus larvae. In Trial 1, four larval age groups (8, 14, 20 and 26 days post-hatch (dph)) were abruptly weaned to commercial powdered tilapia diet and compared with wild copepod-fed group as the control. In Trial 2, another batch of three weaning age groups were subjected to gradual weaning (8 dph larvae with 8 days co-feeding, 14 dph larvae with 6 days co-feeding and 20 dph larvae with 4 days co-feeding) with Artemia nauplii prior to weaning on commercial powdered prawn diet and compared with a control group consisted of larvae fed exclusively on Artemia nauplii. Both weaning trials were conducted for 21 days. A gradual weaning strategy promoted better survival (22.2%–40.0%) among weaning age groups than the abrupt weaning strategy (2.2%–36.7%). Except for those weaned at 26 dph, abrupt weaning resulted in significantly poor growth and survival among all weaning age groups compared with the wild copepod-fed control group. The highest survival and growth were observed in 20 dph larvae with 4 days live food co-feeding, although the values were significantly lower than the Artemia-fed control group. These results suggest that abrupt weaning at 26 dph, and gradual weaning for 4 days from 20 dph promote successful rearing of silver therapon larvae and that a microparticulate diet specifically formulated for this species needs to be developed.

中文翻译：

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断奶对喂食活饲料和人工饲料的银食道幼虫存活和生长的影响

本研究的早期断奶策略上银therapon的生长和存活的影响Leiopotherapon plumbeus幼虫。在试验 1 中，四个幼体年龄组（孵化后 (dph) 8、14、20 和 26 天）突然断奶至商业粉状罗非鱼饲料，并与作为对照的野生桡足类喂养组进行比较。在试验 2 中，另一批次的三个断奶年龄组对卤虫无节幼体进行逐步断奶（8 dph 幼虫与 8 天共同喂养，14 dph 幼虫与 6 天共同喂养和 20 dph 幼虫与 4 天共同喂养）断奶前使用商业粉状对虾饲料，并与仅以卤虫为食的幼虫组成的对照组相比无节幼体。两次断奶试验都进行了 21 天。与突然断奶策略（2.2%–36.7%）相比，逐步断奶策略在断奶年龄组中提高了存活率（22.2%–40.0%）。除了在 26 dph 断奶的那些，与野生桡足类喂养对照组相比，突然断奶导致所有断奶年龄组的生长和存活率显着降低。在 20 dph 的幼虫中观察到最高的存活率和生长率，同时喂食 4 天活食，尽管这些值显着低于喂食卤虫的对照组。这些结果表明，在 26 dph 时突然断奶，并从 20 dph 开始逐步断奶 4 天，促进了银食天狗幼虫的成功饲养，需要开发专门为该物种配制的微粒饲料。