Open AccessPartial replacement of fishmeal with biofloc meal in the diet of postlarvae of the P acific white shrimp L itopenaeus vannamei
Author(s) -
Dantas E.M.,
Valle B.C.S.,
Brito C.M.S.,
Calazans N.K.F.,
Peixoto S.R.M.,
Soares R.B.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
aquaculture nutrition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 79
eISSN - 1365-2095
pISSN - 1353-5773
DOI - 10.1111/anu.12249
Subject(s) - litopenaeus , shrimp , biology , fish meal , zoology , meal , feed conversion ratio , weight gain , fishery , food science , body weight , fish <actinopterygii> , endocrinology
This study evaluated the potential for the replacement of fishmeal ( FM ) by biofloc meal ( BM ) in the diet of L itopenaeus vannamei postlarvae. Four isonitrogenous (437.42 g kg −1 ) and isocaloric (19.84 kJ g −1 ) diets were formulated, in which FM was replaced with BM at 0% ( T 0), 7.5% ( T 7.5), 15% ( T 15) and 30% ( T 30). A commercial diet ( CD ) was used as reference. The study was conducted over 42 days in 50 L tanks connected to a water recirculation system. All tanks were stocked with three postlarvae (initial weight 0.0023 g) per litre. Shrimp survival, weight gain ( WG ), final weight ( FW ), specific growth rate ( SGR ) and protein efficiency ratio ( PER ) were measured. Survival rates were high (>91.1%) in all treatments. As the T 30 treatment returned a significantly (<0.05) better performance in WG , FW , SGR and PER than all other treatments, partial replacement of FM with BM does not appear to affect productivity. In fact, a regression analysis indicated that a FM to BM replacement level of over 20% may actually improve shrimp growth. In addition to providing a cost‐effective alternative ingredient for L . vannamei postlarvae diets, the production of meal also represents a more sustainable way of disposing of the excess of biofloc produced by BFT systems.