Water immersion time reduces the preference of juvenile tropical spiny lobster Panulirus ornatus for pelleted dry feeds and fresh mussel

Development of a pelleted dry feed as an alternative to feeding fresh fishery by‐catch is an environmental priority for tropical spiny lobster aquaculture. Earlier studies have shown the lobster's acceptance of pelleted dry feed diminishes rapidly after immersion in water. In this work, we quantified the rate at which dry matter, total protein, soluble protein and individual and total free amino acids were lost from pieces of green‐lipped mussel Perna canaliculus, a commercially‐extruded Penaeus japonicus (kuruma) shrimp feed (KSF) and four laboratory‐made, fishmeal‐based, pelleted feeds upon immersion for up to 7.5 h. The laboratory‐made feeds contained homogenates of either green‐lipped mussel, polychaete (Marphysa sanguinea), prawn (Metapenaeus bennettae) or squid (Sepioteuthis spp.). After being immersed in water for 0, 2.5 or 5 h, these same feeds were offered as a paired choice with KSF in two preference feeding studies with juvenile Panulirus ornatus lobsters. The loobster's preference for fresh mussel always exceeded that of KSF, irrespective of immersion time. Regression of the proportional intake of test feeds against the relative leach rate of KSF identified soluble protein, glycine and taurine as the principal leachate components having the highest positive correlations with the lobster's feeding preference.