CULTURE OF CHIRONOMID LARVAE (INSECTA- DIPTERA- CHIRONOMIDAE)UNDER DIFFERENT FEEDING SYSTEMS

Abstract

ABSTRACT Rearing of chironomid larvae was conducted under laboratory conditions, to study the growth rate (weight & length) of chironomid larvae under different feeding systems. Three types of food were used , the first was Tetramin Flaked commercially available fish food (D1) , nthe 2 d food was algae (Scenedesmus sp., D2) and the 3 rd was baker yeast (D3). Larvae have mean initial length 1.5mm. and mean weight 0.99 µg. Three replicates were performed for each treatment. The three diets have significantly (P<0.05) effect on both weight and length of chironomid larvae, but larvae fed on D1 showed the highest weight and length which represented by 36.68 µg and 9.29 mm, respectively. Followed by those fed on D3 was represented by 7.03mm for length and 31.03 µg for weight, while D2 showed the lowest values for both length (6.28mm.) and weight (27.08 µg.). The highest percentage of protein (51.15%) was for larvae fed on D1, followed by those fed D3 (49.45%), while the larvae fed D2 showed the lowest value of protein which was represented by 26.45%. The lowest lipid content (12.04%) for larvae fed D1, while it represented by 13.25 and 14.22% for larvae fed on both D2 and D3, respectively. Most essential amino acids such as arginine, histidine methionine, phenylanine isoleucine, leucine and lysine were significantly (P<0.05) higher in chironomid larvae fed onTetramin, than those fed the other two diets. The present work revealed the good nutritional value and growth rate for chironomid larvae fed on tetramin.