Effects of Microalgae Addition and Fish Feed Supplementation in the Integrated Rearing of Pacific White Shrimp and Nile Tilapia Using Biofloc Technology

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate a Pacific white shrimp and Nile tilapia integrated system using biofloc technology with or without the addition of the microalgae Scenedesmus obliquus and with or without fish feed supplementation in a two-factor 62-day experiment. The shrimp (2.16 ± 0.01 g) were reared under a density of 400 shrimp m−3 and the fish (1.53 ± 0.12 g) were reared under a density of 522 fish m−3. The microalgae was added to the culture water two times a week. Growth performance, sludge production, and water microbiology were evaluated. Fish feed and the microalgae addition improved fish final biomass in 58% and 14%, respectively (p < 0.05). Fish survival was significantly higher when microalgae was added (93.9 ± 1.8%) compared with the treatments without microalgae addition (86.2 ± 7.6%) (p < 0.05). The yield of the overall system was higher in the treatments with fish feed supplementation (4.2 ± 0.2 kg m−3) compared with no addition (3.9 ± 0.2 kg m−3) (p <0.05). These results suggest that fish feed supplementation at the rate of 1% of the biomass and microalgae inoculation can improve fish growth performance and system yield, without affecting sludge production and water microbiology. This work is an expansion of a conference paper with the same title.