AbstractA 21‐d nursery trial was conducted to evaluate various food supplements on growth and survival of postlarval (PL)Litopenaeus vannamei.Each of four treatments was provided with an equal quantity of a dried commercial feed throughout the study. Three treatments received algae paste (Thalassiosira weissflogii) supplemented every 3 d. These include F, commercial feed plus algae; FAr3, commercial feed plus algae plusArtemiaevery other day during the first 7 d; and FAr7, commercial feed plus algae plusArtemiaevery day during the first 7 d. The fourth treatment served as control (FNA); it relied only on the commercial feed plus naturally occurring algae. At the conclusion of the nursery period, there were no significant differences in survival or feed conversion ration for PL nursed in the various treatments.Artemiadid have some effect in that PL receivingArtemiasupplement for 3 d (FAr3) were significantly larger than those that did not. Algal paste in itself had no significant effect. Overall, results suggest an advantage to supplementing dried feed withArtemiafor at least 3 d during the first week of nursery culture but little advantage to the use of a diatom paste as a food supplement.