How to Prepare Egg Custard for Feeding Shrimp Larvae

Food is the most critical aspect of the breeding process of shrimps and fishes. In the natural breeding process, these animals know where a good amount of natural food will be available accordingly they migrate to those places during the breeding process. Because during the larvae stage these animals are very small and for survival, they need very tiny food which they can consume easily. In natural environments like rivers, streams, or sea those type of food is widely available i.e. phytoplanktons and zooplanktons.

But in the commercial breeding process in hatcheries, we need to prepare or create such type of food which these baby larvae can consume and digest easily. In this blog, I am going to share such type of food which we call “Egg Custard”. This feed can be used in Biofloc System.

Materials Required For Egg Custard Preparation

The following materials are required for preparing Egg Custards;

• Poultry Egg
• Mussel or Prawn Meat
• Wheat Flour (Atta)
• Skimmed Milk Powder
• Multi-Vitamins Capsules  (Click here to buy)
• Calcium Phosphorus Suspension   (Click here to buy)
• Cod Liver Oil   (Click here to buy)

Appliance Required

• Knife  (Click here to buy)
• Sieve  (Click here to buy)
• Blender or Mixer (Click here to buy)
• Steel Container with Cover
• Rice Cooker (Click here to buy)

Amount of Ingredients Required To Make 100 Grams Egg Custard

Here is the amount of ingredients required for preparing 100 grams of custard egg feed for feeding shrimp larvae. Depending upon how much quantity of larvae you have accordingly you can prepare the feed.

1.      Egg (One)                                                   40 grams
2.      Mussel/Prawn Meat                                 20 grams
3.      Wheat Flour                                               15 grams
4.      Skimmed Milk Powder                            20 grams
5.      Multi-Vitamin Capsules                          1 gram
6.      Calcium Phosphorus Suspension          2 ml
7.      Cod Liver Oil                                              2 ml

Preparation Procedures of 100 grams of Egg Custard

Follow the below preparation guidelines as mentioned to get the perfect results.

1. Step:     Blend 25-30 grams of either Mussel Meat or Prawn Meat in a mixer
2. Step:     Collect 20 grams of meat in a blender
3. Step:     Add one whole egg with yolk and stir it thoroughly
4. Step:     Add 15 grams of wheat flour
5. Step:     Add 20 grams of milk powder
6. Step:     Add 1 gram of Vitamin Capsule (soak the capsule in hot water for 5 minutes)
7. Step:     Add 2 ml of Calcium Phosphorous Suspensions
8. Step:     Add 2 ml of Cod Liver Oil
9. Step:     Now mix it thoroughly in a mixer
10. Step:     Collect the mixture in a steel container
11. Step:     Put the steel container in the rice cooker containing water and cover it
12. Step:     Allow it to cook in the rice cooker for 30 minutes until it solidifies into a custard
13. Step:     Turn off the rice cooker and take out egg custard and cool it for 30 minutes
14. Step:     Cut the cake into small cubes and store it in a refrigerator at 4 degrees centigrade
15. Step:     The prepared egg custard can be used for a maximum period of 3 days

How to Feed Egg Custard to Shrimp Larvae

Now the feed is prepared, it’s time to feed the animals. The custard cubes cannot be fed to the animals directly, they need to be broken down into very tiny chunks so that they can grab and consume them easily. Here are the steps you need to follow for feeding the prepared egg custards to the shrimp larvae.

Step 1:     Take the required amount of egg custard cubes and rub them in a steel or plastic sieve in running tap water along with a 100-micron filter mesh

Step 2:     Collect the fine particles that come from the sieve to filter mesh in a container or beaker

Step 3:     Using a dropper, feed the animals manually by dropping the egg custard particles nearer to them and observe if they are able to consume it. The amount of feed given is decided based on the feed demand.

Step 4:     Remove uneaten feed that is getting settled down in the bottom of the tank to avoid any toxic gas formation

Step 5:     Feed them 4-5 times per day for faster growth

Conclusion

Post shrimp breeding, feeding plays a vital role, so its very essential to understand and adopt the right feeding management for the shrimp larvae. Egg custard feeding is one of the best practices followed by most shrimp and fish hatcheries. While feeding the shrimp larvae you need to monitor closely to check if the given feed is getting consumed and observe the feed demand timelines based upon which you can control the feeding schedule.

Please share your thought on this egg custard preparation process and if you have any brilliant ideas you can also share them in the comment section of this blog.

Thank you so much for spending some of your valuable time reading my content, I hope you like it.