Feed management and the use of automatic feeders in the pond production of Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of using automatic feeding and acoustic feedback systems on the pond culture of Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei. This trial was performed using 16, 0.1 ha ponds stocked at 38 shrimp/m(2) and grown for 13 weeks. The treatments used were a standard feeding protocol (SFP) fed twice daily, a Timer treatment fed a 15% increase to the SFP offering feed 6 times per day (Timer 15), a timer treatment fed a 30% increase to the SFP offering feed 6 times per day (Timer 30), and the AQ1 acoustic feedback system that fed based on feeding activity (AQ1). At the conclusion of the pond production trial, final individual weights of the shrimp were significantly different for all treatments 19.74 g, 25.15 g, 27.52 g, and 32.04 g for the SFP, Timer 15, Timer 30, and AQ1 treatments respectively. The shrimp yield for the AQ1 treatment (7430 kg/ha) was also significantly higher than the SFP (4843 kg/ha) or Timer 15 (5629 kg/ha) treatments. The AQ1 treatment also produced a significantly higher value of shrimp ($65,587/ha) than the SFP ($32,982/ha) or the Timer 15 ($44,279/ha). No significant differences were seen in FCR (1.07-1.24) or survival (58.5-63.9%). The results of this and previous work, demonstrated that increasing the number of daily feedings from 2 to 6 can allow for a higher daily feeding rate, which translated into higher growth and production. Improvements of feed inputs using feedback technologies improved the production as the number of feedings and quantity of feed was increased, resulting in further improvements in production. The results of this study indicate that increasing the number of daily feedings in the pond production of shrimp has the potential to significantly increase growth and can reduce the labor requirements for feeding.