Black cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus) meal as a protein source in the practical diets for juvenile whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei)

The present study was conducted to evaluate the potential of black cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus) meal (BCM) as an alternative protein source in the practical diets for the whiteleg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei juveniles. Six dietary treatments with different levels of BCM at 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50% (namely BCM 0 -BCM 50, respectively) were prepared, and each diet was fed to triplicate tanks of L. vannamei juveniles (initial body weight 0.73 ±0.01 g) for 40 days. At the end of the experiment, shrimps fed the BCM-included diets (BCM10, 20, 30, 40 or 50) generally attained the higher weight gain (WG), specific growth rate (SGR), survival percentage, and the better feed conversion ratio (FCR) than that fed the control diet (BCM_0). Nevertheless, the shrimps fed BCM_50 attained the highest WG (1124.6%), SGR (2.71%/ day), survival percentage (88.3%), and the best FCR value (1.83) among the BCM-included dietary treatments, and these results were significantly higher (p 0.05) than those from the control group. In conclusion, the BCM protein can replace 50% of fish meal protein in the practical diets for L. vannamei juveniles without any adverse effects on the shrimp growth performance and survival.