Live feeds in aquaculture
Dhert, Ph.; Sorgeloos, P. (1995). Live feeds in aquaculture, in: Nambiar, K.P.P. et al. (Ed.) Aquaculture Towards the 21st Century: Proceedings of INFOFISH-AQUATECH ‘94, International Conference on Aquaculture. pp. 209-219 In: Nambiar, K.P.P.; Singh, T. (Ed.) (1995). Aquaculture Towards the 21st Century: Proceedings of INFOFISH-AQUATECH ‘94, International Conference on Aquaculture. INFOFISH: Kuala Lumpur. 287 pp., more |
| Abstract | Over the past two decades intensive larviculture of several fish and shellfish species has expanded into a multimillion dollar industry. Although much progress has been made in identifying the dietary requirements of the larvae of various aquaculture species, the mass culture of their early larval stages still requires the use of live feeds. Selected either through trial and error approaches or because of their convenience in mass production and use, hatcheries are relying today on three groups of live feed, i.e. various species of microscopic algae, the rotifer Brachionus and the anostracan brine shrimp Artemia .Various species of microalgae are used in feeding mollusc and shrimp larvae and/or in greenwater fish larviculture. As their mass production remains a complex and costly task, and because their dietary value is not always predictable, various types of supplementation and/or substitution products are used in combination with live algae.Selected strains of the rotifer Brachionus are mass-cultured in shrimp and fish hatcheries. The need for microalgae in rotifer culture can be greatly reduced as yeast-based products can be used as more cost-effective diets. The lipid and vitamin composition of Brachionus can be adjusted with selected enrichment products in order to better meet the dietary requirements of the fish larvae.Of all live foods used in fish and crustacean larviculture, the brine shrimp Artemia is the most widely used, not least because of the practical convenience of hatching this zooplankton substitute from commercially available dry cysts. With the fast expansion of shrimp and marine fish hatcheries all over the world, the consumption of Artemia cysts has recently climbed to over 2,000 mt annually. Selected strains are used as starter feeds, whereas nutritionally less-suitable varieties, such as the Great Salt Lake (Utah, USA) strain can be enriched with emulsified or microparticulate products so as to better meet the dietary requirements of the older larval stages of fish and shellfish. Artemia metanauplii can also be used as convenient carriers for oral delivery of chemotherapeutics, vaccines and hormones. Adult Artemia biomass harvested from solar saltworks is used as an excellent source of food in shrimp and fish nurseries. |
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