Evaluation of the formulated diet MySpat for feeding hatchery-reared spat of the green-lipped mussel, Perna canaliculus (Gmelin, 1791)

As with most bivalves, a high cost component of hatchery and nursery culture of the green-lipped mussel (Perna canaliculus) is the raising of live micro-algae feeds. To remedy this, artificial feeds have been developed, however, these have had mixed success for this species. In this experiment, we tested the formulated diet MySpat (sourced from INVE Aquaculture) on P. canaliculus spat of approximately 1 mm in size. Performance measures under study were mussel spat growth and survivorship after 21 days feeding on varying proportions of MySpat. The experimental diets tested, consisted of a mix of T-Isochrysis galbana, Pavlova lutheri and Tetraselmis suecica micro-algae that were replaced with increasing proportions of MySpat, i.e. 25%, 50%, 67%, 75%, 90% and 100% MySpat replacement. Our results revealed no significant increase in spat mortality with increasing MySpat diet levels, and growth was equivalent to the micro-algae only dietary control in all diets except the 90% and 100% MySpat replacement diets. Such results highlight the role MySpat could have for P. canaliculus hatchery operations, particularly with regard to reducing the costs of raising micro-algae when producing seed for industry. A greater understanding of the particle selection process of this species would be beneficial for future studies seeking to employ artificial diets.