Use of fish meal analogue as an alternative source to fish meal in the super intensive cultivation of white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei in a biofloc system
Author: André Freitas da Silva (Currículo Lattes)
Supervisor: Dr Wilson Francisco Britto Wasielesky Junior
Co-supervisor: Dr Dariano Krummenauer
Abstract
The cultivation of shrimp in a biofloc system emerged as a sustainable alternative to conventional crops. This system provides high stocking densities and maintains good water quality. Many efforts have been made in research into replacing fishmeal in shrimp farming. Fishmeal and fish oil are the main sources of protein and lipids used in diets of aquatic organisms, however, the feed industries have had problems finding these ingredients due to the constant reductions in supply, in addition to the increase in prices , which has been stimulating the search for alternative sources to replace these ingredients. Analogous fishmeal, obtained from the by-product of terrestrial animals, appears with great potential to replace fishmeal. However,the effects of using fish meal analogue in diets for the shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei are still poorly known, especially in super intensive cultivation in a biofloc system on a commercial scale. In this sense, the present study aimed to evaluate the effect of replacing fish meal with fish meal analogous in diets for L. vannamei grown in a super intensive system with bioflocs on a commercial scale. Therefore, an experiment was carried out with three treatments (0, 50 and 100% replacement of fish meal with fish meal analogue) with three replicates each, lasting 70 days. The juveniles of L. vannamei (2.6 g) were stored (400 prawns.m-2) in 9 tanks of 35 m2. The physical-chemical parameters of the water were monitored throughout the experiment.The results showed that the substitution of fish meal for fish meal analogue did not negatively affect the zootechnical performance of L. vannamei and that all physical-chemical parameters of the water remained within the tolerated limits for the species, even when the flour of fish has been 100% replaced by fish meal analogue.