Co-culture of Indian white shrimp, Penaeus indicus and seaweed, Gracilaria tenuistipitata in amended biofloc and recirculating aquaculture system (RAS)

A 60 days nursery-based co-culture of Indian white shrimp, Penaeus indicus along with seaweed, Gracilaria tenuistipitata trial was carried out in Recirculatory Aquaculture System (RAS) of 6000 Liters capacity tank (FRP, reinforced fibre plastics) by using biofloc technology (BFT) to evaluate the growth, survival performance and immune potential. Accordingly a completely randomized experiment was designed with six treatments. These treatments were: T1- Static system (Control), T2 - RAS with BFT, T3 - RAS with Gracilaria, T4 - RAS and BFT customized with bacterial consortium, T5 - RAS with BFT + Gracilaria + bacterial consortium, T6 - Static + Gracilaria + BFT (without consortium and without RAS). Shrimp post larvae (0.08 +/- 0.03 g) were stocked at a density of 3000 nos./ton. RAS with BFT along with the seaweed and bacterial consortium showed significantly higher growth and survival compared to control (T1) and treatments without BFT (T3). The control (T1) exhibited significantly lower growth, weight gain, specific growth rate, yield and higher FCR value than that of the RAS + BFT (T2), RAS+ seaweed (T3) and RAS + BFT or their combinations with bacterial consortium (T4 and T5). The treatment having seaweed without BFT (T3) showed higher survival than the static control (T1), but no significant difference in growth. The highest ABW of 4.23 +/- 0.39 was obtained in T4 (BFT customized with consortium) followed by T5 (BFT + seaweed + bacterial consortium) and lowest was observed in T1 (2.14 +/- 0.4). Similarly, the highest survival (92.33 +/- 1.52) and production (10.39 +/- 0.24 kg/ton) was observed in T5. Significantly higher NH4-N and NO2-N was accumulated in the control (T1) in comparison with other treatment like T4 and T5. Immune parameters viz., PPO activity, Total Serum Protein and Total Hemocyte Count (THC) showed significantly higher values in all the treatments compared to control. This study establishes the novel concept of incorporation of macroalgae in biofloc based RAS improving the production performance and immune response of shrimp during nursery as well as grow-out phase.

Automated summary

The study demonstrates that incorporating macroalgae in biofloc-based RAS can enhance the production performance and immune response of shrimp during nursery and grow-out phases.