Zaleha Kassim

Sustainable Technique for Selected Live Feed Culture

Sustainability in the aquaculture industry depends on several factors including the minimum production cost in comparison to the yield, unexpected environmental conditions which affect the farm and practices in the farm management itself. These factors are inter-connected and always incur a synergistic effect on the issue of sustainability. Live feeds as the fundamental needs for larval rearing and fry production have to be prioritised for sustainable farming activity. Dependency on imported sources of live feeds or inert feed will increase the production cost. Thus, the continued activity of screening, stocking and maintaining some local species as an option for live feed production is economically necessary. Live feeds are an important basic diet for newly-hatched fish and shrimp larvae as they still have an incomplete digestive system and are lacking in enzymes. They are still at a very young stage to generate their own required nutrients or convert them from any pre-cursor obtained from a diet. They need a ready-made diet with readily available nutrient to be absorbed through their digestive system. There have been many species suggested or tested for their potential as live feed. All test animals were mostly zooplankton in nature and must meet the requirement as live feed. They must be in a compatible size with the mouth size or gape of the larvae predator, or they cannot be swallowed. Since larvae are still weak to track down the food, the wave created by the prey will be a great help, thus ‘active’ swimming prey is preferred. The most important role of a prey is the ability to supply energy and other nutrients which are essential for the larval survival and growth. Live feeds, as the starter diet in larval rearing and fry production must be continuous in supply. Good, nutritious and compatible-size prey must be able to reproduce fast to meet the requirement and adaptable to a simple mass-production technique.

A taxonomic revision of the genus Thalia Blumenbach, 1798; Weelia Yount, 1954; Brooksia Metcalf, 1918 (Salpida: Salpidae) from East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia

The marine pelagic tunicates of Family Salpidae Lahille, 1888 presence in the coastal waters of Terengganu was studied for the first time. Samples were collected from April to July 2016 using 200µm Bongo net; hauled vertically from a stationary vessel; and preserved in 5% buffered formaldehyde. A total of 4 species under this family were found, observed and identified: Thalia rhomboides (Quoy and Gaimard 1824); Thalia sibogae (van Soest 1973); Weelia cylindrica (Cuvier 1804) and Brooksia rostrata (Traustedt 1893). All species were identified as new records in Malaysian waters. The description on morphological characteristics and a key to the solitary and aggregate of the recorded species is added. The distribution was analyzed from the 18 sampling stations in theTerengganu waters including Pulau Bidong, Pulau Yu and Pulau Kapas. The collected data was then compiled with previous available global literature on the distribution and occurrence of these four species, consequently updating the biodiversity of Malaysian fauna and its worldwide biogeography distribution.

Meiofaunal Responses to Azoic Sediment in a Sandbar-Regulated Estuary in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia

Series of field experiments were conducted in a remote estuarine creek of the Mengabang Telipot River (05°24.860″N, 103°5.266″E) on April 2012 and November 2012 to investigate the colonisation of the meiofauna on the azoic sediment. A total of 25 bottles (modified holes on the cap) filled with azoic sediment were deposited during low tide. Five replicates were retrieved on day 1, 4, 7, 10 and 13 days post-placement. Five replicates of sediment control were also taken to provide baseline information on the resident meiofaunal community. On each sampling occasion, the physico-chemical parameters such as temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and pH value were measured in situ. Both experiments in April and November 2012 recorded three major meiobenthic taxa, namely Nematoda, Gnathostomulida and Copepoda. The one-way ANOVA result had proved that the density of the meiofauna found in April 2012 had significant different with the azoic sediment at most stage of the experiment (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, in November 2012, only the densities of copepods and nematodes were found statistically significant different during the experiment period (One-way ANOVA, p < 0.05). Environmental factors, substrate characteristics, the availability of the food and behaviour of individual taxa are very crucial in determining the consistency of the new recruitment to survive, recolonise and therefore reproduce in the new substrate.

Diet Preferences of Small Fishes at Setiu Lagoon, Malaysia

This study aimed to investigate diet preferences of small fishes in a shallow coastal lagoon through analysis of their stomach contents.The 24 hours samplings was done during high tide at selected stations; mangrove areas and seagrass areas, both located at coastal lagoon of Setiu, Terengganu (N5o41.75’ E102o42’ to N5o 42.5’ E 102o41’). The small fishes were caught using seine nets (0.5 cm2), while the zooplanktons were collected using Kitahara zooplankton net (110 microns) then were preserved. All items found in the stomach were compared with the composition of the zooplanktons obtained from the water samples. During the sampling time, 10 species of small fishes were caught. There were higher number of fishes and zooplanktons caught from the seagrass areas than the mangrove areas. Nonetheless, diversity of zooplankton was higher in the mangroves. Overall, the number of harpacticoid was higher than all other food items found in the stomach of fishes caught from both areas despite the high number of calanoid copepods found in the lagoon