Aquaculture 2022

February 28 - March 4, 2022

San Diego, California

UTILIZING FEED EFFECTORS AND PASSIVE ACOUSTIC MONITORING FOR SEMI-INTENSIVE PACIFIC WHITE SHRIMP Litopenaeus vannamei PRODUCTION

Samuel Walsh*, Khanh Nguyen, Leila Strebel, Melanie Rhodes, D Allen Davis

 

School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences

Auburn University, AL, 36849

Saw0083@auburn.edu

 



The pressures placed upon food security by human population growth will be compounded by the effects of continued environmentally unsustainable farming practices. The farming of highly efficient aquatic organisms such as Pacific white shrimp (L. vannamei) may provide a solution that accounts for both food security and environmental sustainability. Developments in shrimp farming management and technology such as better pond location and construction, passive acoustic monitoring (PAM), and plant-based protein diets are all contributing to a more efficient and sustainable industry. To further improve the efficiency of shrimp aquaculture, the use of feed effectors (chemoattractants, feeding incitants, and stimulants) has been suggested to increase the attractability and palatability of formulated diets. Our research trial aimed to expand upon previous shrimp research involving plant protein diets, feed effectors, and PAM in a laboratory setting, by conducting a feed trial in outdoor semi-intensive (30 shrimp/m2) ponds. A 13-week trial was conducted in sixteen 0.1-hectare ponds equipped with PAM integrated, automatic feeders, which allowed for demand-style feeding. Four open formulation soy optimized diets, an “all plant” basal diet and three diets with an attractant (2% krill meal (Krill), 2% squid meal (Squid), 4% fish hydrolysate (Fish Hydro)), were fed to the shrimp for a period of 74-75 days. The growth and general health of shrimp were monitored via weekly sampling and final production values were determined after fully harvesting each pond. Harvest was delayed due to a hurricane, which in combination with multiple blue green algae blooms, led to shrimp mortalities. As a result of low survival, some ponds were excluded from the final data set.  No statistically significant differences were found between the treatments for any major production parameter apart from feed input and feed cost (Table 1). Significantly more of the Fish Hydro diet was fed to the respective ponds than the All Plant diet, suggesting that the addition of fish hydrolysate to soy optimized diets increases the intensity of the feed response in Pacific white shrimp in semi-intensive pond culture. However, further research must be conducted to improve our understanding of the relationship between feed effectors and shrimp production aquaculture.