Biofloc technology is a very promising for stable and sustainable production as the system has self-nitrification process within culture ponds with zero water exchange (Yoram, 2000, 2005a&b & Yoram, et at 2012). The technology has been successfully applied commercially with shrimp (L. vannamei) in Belize (McIntosh, 2000a, b & c, 2001). It also has been applied with success in shrimp farming in Indonesia, Malaysia (Taw 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010: Taw & Setio, 2014).
Biosecurity starts with farm designs which has been changed to treat incoming water before use and also treating waste water and finally to RAS systems (Taw 2017). Biosecured pond designs with HDPE liners, covered ponds, secured inlet and outlet gates emerged. Among the operation technologies biofloc system is one of the most recent one.
A simple system incorporated with conventional autotrophic algae base considered as semi-biofloc has been successfully operated in Malaysia (Taw et. al, 2013) & Myanmar (Taw & Tun, 2013). The technology has been utilized in other groups of species including P. monodon (Smith 2008), and freshwater prawn Macrobrachium. Also, recently applied in shrimp broodstock (Chime 2011), hatcheries, nurseries and also in raceways (Moss, 2006: Samocha 2009) production facilities. The system was recently applied in Saudi Arabia desert environment successfully (Taw, et.al 2016) The effect of bioflocs on growth and immunity on P. vannamei has been studied by Jang, In-Kwon (2012), Kim, Su-Kyoung, et al (2013), Julie E., et al (2014). Bioflocs with unicellular protein (CP 30-50%) is natural extra nutritious feed for the shrimps. Recently a few studies on biofloc were reported at Aqua 2018 in Montpellier, France organized by WAS and EAS. According to Fletcher (2019) study backs biofloc benefits in shrimp production allowing shrimp farmers to double stocking densities without impacting growth rates. A success story - Biofloc Technology in Shrimp Farming has been discussed by Magadadyasty (2019).
Main economic benefits of shrimp biofloc system are - better biosecurity (zero water exchange - RAS), stable water quality (DO & pH), low FCR (1.0 to 1.2), higher energy efficiency (680-1,000 kg/hp), maximum production of 5.0mt/ha in 0.25 ha ponds to 12 kg/m3 in Raceways. Probiotic bacteria produced in situ (better immunity) leads to sustainable production.