Investigation on the Litopenaeus vannamei Diet Composition During Different Growth Phases

Stable carbon isotope ratios (δ13C) were used to estimate the relative contributions of natural food and formulated diet to growth of Litopenaeus vannamei cultured in higher-altitude ponds.The results show that the δ13C values of shrimp are affected by food with different δ13C values,it reduced slowly and gradually became similar to the δ13C value of formulated diet,from the beginning the δ13C values of shrimp was-19.52‰ ± 0.09‰ and to the end it became-21.74‰ ± 0.17‰;after they were cultured about 10 d,the diet of shrimp was changed and when it was cultured about 34 d,the formulated diet and zooplankton provide almost equal growth energy.At the end of the culture,about 97.29±0.98% of the growth energy of shrimp came from the formulated diet.