Feeding Western white shrimp (Penaeus vannamei Boone, 1931) with bioflocs biomass and its effects on water quality and growth performance

The effect of feeding Western white shrimp Penaeus vannamei Boone, 1931 (in three stage post larvae, nursery and juvenile) with bioflocs biomass on water quality and growth performance were investigated in the present work. Western white shrimps were fed (with wet biofloc) for three weeks in fiberglass containers with 180 liters volume of water and density of 10 post larvae per liter (post larvae), 1 individual per liter (nursery) and 1 gr biomass per liter (juvenile) in three biofloc treatments at different feeding levels of 25, 15 and 6% of body weight. The results obtained in this study allowed, Water quality parameters including temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and pH, no significant differences were observed among the biofloc treatments (P>0.05). Maximum dissolved oxygen (6.34 ± 0.31) and maximum pH (8.33 ± 0.05 mg/lit) was in biofloc post larvae treatment. Maximum and minimum level of ammonia was 0.34± 0.21 and 0.1± 0.08 mg/lit in biofloc juvenile and post larvae treatments, respectively and showed significant difference between treatments (P<0.05). The maximum growth rate (50± 10 mg per day), specific growth rate (10.92± 1.37 %/day) and survival rate (%96.29± 0.76) were observed in biofloc treatments, respectively (juvenile, post larvae and nursery). Also, the highest feed conversion ratio (4.11±1.08) and the lowest feed efficiency (%24.28±6.38) were obtained in juvenile biofloc treatment. The results showed that the presence of biofloc improved water quality. Western white shrimp grown with feeding of bioflocs biomass but no sufficient food source (only biofloc) for growth and production.