Abstract
It is w ell understood that shrimp are opportunistic grazers that eat a wide variety of organisms. Yet diets with low or no inclusion of fish meal are often regarded as of lower quality because the farmer does not smell fish and the color is not dark. In most production situations, the farmer must rely on qualitative judgement of feed intake based on visual observations of such factors as gut fill or feed disappearance from feed trays. Similarly, in the laboratory we have relied on traditional methods of observation. These are highly subjective measures which are not always easily interpreted. With the development of passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) we are finding a quantitative measure to help us better understand the response of shrimp to various diet types as well as ingredient matrixes. We are currently working to identify facts that influence the acoustic signal as well as confirming the efficacy of PAM in the laboratory. We will update you on our findings for various pellet sizes, hardness and use of attractants. Such technologies we feel will be able to provide more unbiassed data to address issues of consumption and use of attractants to improve feed formulations.
At the farm level, with the advent and adoption of automated feeding systems we are re-learning feed management and finding traditional feed management is highly restrictive. As we move further towards technological solutions to feed management the use of passive acoustic technologies have become more prevalent. Over the past 7 years we have moved our research system from traditional feed management relying on 120-day production cycle to automatic feeder systems allowing for a 90- day production cycle while producing higher biomasses and larger shrimp. This presentation will summarize or work using acoustic as a laboratory tool to better understand the factors effecting feed intake as well as our pond production work transitioning to passive acoustic feeding and evaluation of the technology in the field.