Performance of juvenile angelfish Pterophyllum scalare fed with the oligochaetes Enchytraeus buchholzi. （Grindal Worm )

Abstract

The angel fish Pterophyllum scalare is one of the main species of ornamental interest and widely exploited in Colombia for export. Objective. To evaluate the influence on growth and survival of juvenile P. scalare veil variety fed with Enchytraeus buchholzi. Materials and methods. Ten juveniles per fish tank were randomly distributed among nine fish tanks and then treated with three different diets (D1, D2 and D3): commercial feed containing 45% of crude protein (CP) (D1); commercial feed containing 45% of CP + E. buchholzi with 11.6% of CP (D2) and E. buchholzi alone with 11.6% of CP (D3). Animals were fed during 28 days and final weight (FW), final standard length (FSL), weight gain (WG), gain in standard length (GSL), specific growth rate (SGR), and survival were measured. Results. Significant differences were observed (p <0.05) for the variables FW and FSL. Individuals fed with diet D2 showed higher FW and FSL than those fed with diet D1. The best growth performance was in overall obtained with D2 and were not significantly different (p >0.05) to those observed in juveniles fed with D3. Conclusions. Based upon our results, we recommend E. buchholzi to be used as a supplement to the artificial diet instead of a diet on its own. The adequate proportion in the diet must be known for its optimal use.Key words: growth, live food, angelfish, survival.