Culture of Tiger Shrimp Peneaus monodon Fabricius Using Probiotics in Brackish Water Pond at Perak, Malaysia

The growth of tiger shrimp P. monodon and physicochemical factors of pond water and sediment were observed in tropical climate using bacterial products called probiotics. No improvement in shrimp growth and water quality was noted compare to other reported studies. The organic matter (OM) and total sulfur (TS) of pond soil tend to decrease over culture period. Daily growth rate of shrimps was recorded 0.20 g/day in 116 days culture period. Dissolved oxygen concentrations, pH, temperature and salinity were found fluctuated mostly between 6.8-10.3 mg/l, 7.22-8.44, 30-32oC and 16.0-28.2‰, respectively. Soil texture of the culture ponds was sandy. Concentration of organic matter was low in the ponds probably due to decomposition by microbes during mineralization process. Comparatively, the concentration of soil TS was found lower in the culture pond suggesting that heterotropic bacteria utilized the superficial soil sulfate compounds, which converts into sulfur and its related compounds. The higher concentrations of major macronutrients in soil could be attributed partly to nutrient loading and accumulation from soil pore water during drying over time and pond age. Surprisingly, the concentrations of soil Mg (16541.7±3007.8 ppm) was almost uniform probably due to the use of agricultural limestone dolomite (8132 kg/h) into the pond. Noticeable differences were not found for concentrations of soil Cu, Cd, Zn, Pb, Fe, Mn, Al, Co, V, Cr, Ti, As, Ag and Sb in the ponds. None of the elements accumulated in the ponds were reached to harmful concentrations for culture species.