Application Of Lights in The Nursery of Snubnose Pompano Trachinotus blochii (Lacepède, 1801) In Ponds as An Effort to Increase Feed Cost Efficiency

The snubnose pompano (Trachinotus blochii) is currently in increasing demand, both for the domestic market and inter national markets such as Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. The snubnose pompano can be cultivated in ponds be cause it is tolerant to changes in salinity (5-40 ppt). In this study, the use of lights installed in cages to maintain the snub nose pompano nursery will respond to positively phototactic live feeds (zooplankton, shrimp, and small fish) which will gather at night. It is hoped that the use of these alternative feed sources can increase feed efficiency. The urgency of this research is to determine efforts to save on the use of artificial feed and suppress parasite attacks. A t-test was carried out to compare the averages of two different samples on the growth rate and health of snubnose pompano fish. The research re sulted in optimum growth of snubnose pompano with a 100% survival rate, feed conversion ratio (FCR) value of 0.9, and produced snubnose pompano size 80–100 g/head within two months as well as healthy fish seeds. Parasitic attacks are lower than the treatment without light with a prevalence value of 25% (with lights); a range of 25%-75% (without lights) an intensity of 6-8 (with lights); a range of 11-35.67 (without light). The snubnose pompano seeds are always actively mov ing when the light is on and can effectively catch organisms such as small shrimp or small crustaceans (as observed in the stomach contents and intestines of the snubnose pompano). The light also indicates that parasitic attacks on the snubnose pompano are less common.