Abstract:
In order to improve quality of giant tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon) pond, the dietary remainder from the pond in which the major component is protein and carbohydrate was reduced by Bacillus. Bacillus strains (Bacillus sp. SS-8, Bacillus sp. B12, B. circulans B6, B. halodurans C-1, B. firmus K-1 and mixed culture) were cultured in a defatted rice bran medium (concentration 0.5-2.0 %), at pH 8.0 and 37?C and shaking at 200 rpm for 48 h. The Bacillus strain B12 was found to be able to produce high activities of proteinase (0.34 unit/ml) and amylase (0.14 unit/ml) with 1% defatted rice bran. When the bacterium was grown on 1% of defatted rice bran medium, it produced the highest cell growth at 36-84 h and the maximum proteinase and amylase at 60-84 h. The Bacillus strain B12 was found to be able to adsorb on defatted rice bran at 69% relative adsorption, and 10% defatted rice bran was the best concentration for bacterium bran cake production. To evaluate the growth of Bacillus strain B12, the bacterium bran cake was cultured by water collected from the giant tiger prawn pond, the result showed that the lag phase was up to 12 h, log phase was between 12 and 20 h and the stationary phase was between 20 and 28 h. The maximum cell growth was found to be 2.82 x 10 7 CFU/ml, while the total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) values decreased from 48.77 to 20.68 mg/l and 455.10 to 418.10 mg/l, respectively. However, total suspended solid (TSS) value increased from 39.22 to 41.49 g/l. The temperature for cake storage was also determined and the result showed that the relative viability of the bacterium was 50%, when it was stored at -8 ๐C for 60 days. The application of bacterium bran cake with 6.96 x 106 cells, in the experimental giant tiger prawn pond (180 l capacity) containing 10 prawns was conducted. The COD and TKN values and dietary remainder in the bottom of the pond decreased whereas TSS value increased. Moreover, the weight and size of the prawns in the pond increased at 13% and 24%, respectively. However, the quality of the pond was found to depend on the time of bacterium bran cake addition to the pond.