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The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume II - 2010 Piamsak Menasveta, Somkiat Piyatiratitivorakul 81 Finnstim in both basal diets did not significantly improve the survival rates of shrimps, which were a little lower in the plant protein diet groups than animal protein diet groups. Nevertheless, the addition of 1.5% Finnstim in plant protein diet resulted in survial rates comparable with the animal protein diet without Finnstim. In conclusion, the addition of 1.5% Finnstim to high plant protein feed could improve palatability to a level similar to the generalized Thai shrimp feed. Key words: amino acids, betaine, Finnstim, Penaeus monodon Introduction The intensive culture of fish and crustaceans world-wide is expected to triple by 2020 and this will result in a requirement of 15-18 million tons of dietary protein. The current production of 3.6 million tons fishmeal protein is insufficient for all aquaculture species. The tremendous shortfall in total protein requirement must be made up by plant protein (Finley and Fry, 2009). Increasing the ratio of plant protein however may cause poor palatability, especially for shrimp feed. In order to solve this problem, certain feed attractants need to be added to the feed and this process has been evaluated in our study. Betaine or trimethylglycine functions as a methyl group donor. Sugar beet is the natural source of betaine. A commercial aquafeed additive using betaine as a main source is produced under the trade name Finnstim. Other amino acid inclusions are glycine, alanine, isoleucine, leucine and valine. The composition is proprietary and is said to be the result of empirical experimentation. The role of Finnstim as a fish feed attractant has been very well documented. However, further studies are required to test its effectiveness as a feed attractant in shrimps. The current paper studied the role of Finnstim in improving the palatability of high plant protein shrimp feed. Three levels of Finnstim were tested using two basal feeds. One was a generalized Thai shrimp feed which comprised mostly animal protein and high plant protein. The experimental feeding trials were conducted on juvenile Penaeus monodon . Materials and Method Two kinds of basal diet were formulated. One was a generalized Thai shrimp feed and another was the higher plant protein feed (Table 1). Since generalized feed comprised mostly animal protein which is also higher in shrimp attractants, the latter