Nutritional Enrichment of Daphnia sp. and its Effect on the Growth of the Ranchu Goldfish Carassius Auratus

Abstract

The Ranchu goldfish Carassius auratus is a premium ornamental fish commodity with high economic value; however, its growth tends to be slow, particularly during the fry stage. One strategy to address this issue is to enhance the quality of natural feed through nutritional enrichment. This study aimed to determine the effect of enriching Daphnia sp. with Dancow milk powder on the growth of Ranchu goldfish fry. The study employed a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three treatments: a control (no enrichment), enrichment at 0.6 g/L (Treatment A), and enrichment at 1.2 g/L (Treatment B), each with three replicates. The observed parameters included absolute length growth, absolute weight growth, specific length growth rate, feed efficiency (FE), survival rate, proximate analysis, and business analysis. The results showed that Treatment A (0.6 g/L enrichment) yielded the best results regarding length growth (6.81 ± 0.01 cm), weight growth (2.30 ± 0.01 g), and feed efficiency (43.53 ± 6.00%). Nutritional enrichment of Daphnia sp. at the appropriate dosage proved effective in improving the growth performance of Ranchu goldfish fry.