THE EFFECT OF MULTI-STRAIN PROBIOTIC TO IMPROVE Litopenaeus vannamei PRODUCTION ON LIMITED WATER EXCHANGE: A FIELD STUDY

Anwar Hasan1*, Jutta Kesselring2, Goncalo A. Santos2
 
1 BIOMIN Singapore Pte Ltd.3791 Jalan Bukit Merah #08-08, E-Centre@Redhill, Singapore, 159471
2 BIOMIN Holding GmbH, Erber Campus 1, 3131 Getzersdorf, Austria
anwar.hasan@biomin.net
 

Shrimp farms often face disease outbreaks. To prevent disease challenges, in particular viral diseases, limited or even zero water exchange is a good practice to implement. It is to prevent pathogen introduction into the system. Usually farmers added water to compensate for evaporation or water leakage, even water levels still above 1 m. However this practice can lead to the introduction of pathogens in areas endemic to certain diseases or where disease outbreaks are occurring.  Good quality probiotics can be an alternative to managing water in ponds with low water levels (below 90 cm). In aquaculture, probiotics have been a common tool to improve water quality. In the current study a series of field trials were conducted to evaluate a multi-strain probiotic (AquaStar® Pond: Bacillus sp., Pediococcus sp., Enterococcus sp., Thiobacillus sp., and Paracoccus sp.) to manage water quality and improve production in ponds with limited water exchange rates, compared to single strain probiotic.

The trials were conducted in 2 different farms with 2 different stocking densities. In farm A, six earthen ponds average 5457 m2 size were used. Three ponds each were randomly assigned as control and treatment. L. vannamei fry was stocked at PL 12 with density of 72 PLs/m2. Multi-strain probiotic BIOMIN AquaStar® Pond was applied on dose 600 g/ha every 5 days in the treatment ponds whereas the Bacillus spp. 3 l/ha every 2-3 days was applied as control. In farm B, four concrete ponds with an average of 800 m2 were divided to control and treatment. In each pond L. vannamei fry were stocked at PL 12 with density of 194 PLs/m2. In the treatment ponds 1000 g/ha of multi-strain probiotic BIOMIN AquaStar® Pond was applied every 3-4 days. Several water quality parameters were measured such as total bacteria count, total Vibrio count, nitrite and ammonia. Harvest data was also collected at the end of the study.

During the study in farm A, water in treatment was added only one time  at DOC 70 due to evaporated, while in control it was several time. But, if we see the TVC of treatment was constantly below control (Figure 1). In term of harvest, data show that in treatment ponds several parameters were improved both in farm A and B. In particular farm B that use high density, there were improved of SR, biomass, FCR, and final weight compared to control ponds (Table 1).

The results of these study show, that in practical farm conditions, multi-strain probiotics can be management tool to reduce water exchange rates in shrimp ponds, avoiding diseases.