Effects of C/N ratio and substrate addition on natural food communities in freshwater prawn monoculture ponds

An on-station trial was conducted to investigate the effects of three C/N ratios (10/1, 15/1 and 20/1) along with substrate presence or absence on natural food communities in freshwater prawn culture ponds. An experiment was carried out in 40m² ponds stocked with a stocking density of 2 prawn juveniles (5.023±0.02g)m⁻ ². A locally formulated and prepared feed containing 30% crude protein with C/N ratio 10 was applied to all ponds. In order to raise the C/N ratio of the feed input to 15 and 20, tapioca starch was applied separately as a source of carbohydrate in addition to the artificial feed. Under substrate treatments, bamboo side shoots were posted vertically in pond bottoms resulting in 100% additional surface area as…