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In this study five diets were formulated to investigate the effects of different levels of dietary Gracilaria pygmaea powder on growth performance, feed, apparent digestibility of and water stability in juvenile Litopenaeus vannamei. Four formulated diets with three different levels of G.pygmaea (GL5, Gl10, GL15%) against a control (0% G.pygmaea) were fed to triplicate groups of L.vannamei (mean initial 6/5-7gr) for 40 days. Shrimp were fed 3 times per day, to apparent satiation and amounts of diet applied were recorded. After 40 days trial, results showed that final body weight (FBW) and weight gain (WG) of shrimp fed 10% (G.pygmaea) diets were significantly higher that those of shrimp fed other diets (P<0.05). Feed efficiency ratio (FCR) of shrimp fed 10% (G.pygmaea) diet were significantly high than that of shrimp fed control 5 and 15% (G.pygmaea) diets (P<0.05). Apparent digestibility coefficients of diets were the significantly different between the shrimp groups. Survival in all treatment was 100 %. Diets containing Gracilaria meal inclusion had significant effects on diet water stability compared with the control diet. Diet containing 15% G.pygmaea had the highest water stability after 4 h (p> 0/05). The results of this study showed that diet supplemented with 10% Gracilaria has a positive effect on the diet water stability, growth performance of Litopenaeus vannamei.

Keywords: Litopenaeus vannamei, Macroalgae, Gracilaria pygmaea, Digestibility

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