Aquaculture America 2024

February 18 - 21, 2024

San Antonio, Texas

REPLACEMENT OF LIVE FOOD (ROTIFERS AND Artemia) BY A COMMERCIALLY FORMULATED DIET IN MARINE FLORIDA POMPANO Trachinotus carolinus LARVAE

Sahar Mejri1, David Bradshaw2 , Ben Panitz1, Carlie Perricone1 , Christopher Robinson1, Nicole Kirchoff3 , Alyson Chin1, Fernando Paredes1 , Ethan Weber1 , Avery Davis4 , Marty Riche1, and Paul S. Wills1

Affiliations

1 Harbor branch Oceanographic Institute-Florida Atlantic University, Fort Pierce, FL, US

2

3 Live Advantage  Bait, LLC, Fort Pierce,  Fl, US

4 Proaquatix , Vero beach, FL, US

 



 Commercial production of marine fish juveniles still relies on the supply of live food, such as rotifers and Artemia .  Pelleted diet substitution for live prey  is important for reducing production costs and for sustaining a high and constant quality juveniles production in commercial hatcheries .  The objective of this research is to test  the potential of a novel commercial compound diet (INVE feed ,  INVE Aquaculture, Belgium)  to replace and eliminate the use of rotifers and/or Artemia for live feeding of Florida Pompano .  INVE Natura pRo (<100um & 100/250 um) and ExL (200/400 um & 300/600 um) are designed to reduce the need to use rotifers and Artemia by at least 50%. A study conducted by INVE in seabream ( Sparus aurata) using these feeds found increases in survival, wet weight, robustness, and decreases in malformations.  To reach this objective,  Florida Pompano eggs were supplied by Proaquatix (Vero Beach, FL). Eggs from the same batch were stocked at 26,000 eggs/liter in 16–110-gallon (416 L- filled to 330 liters) tanks at Live Advantage Bait LLC (LAB) and 30,000 eggs/liter in 16–200-gallon (757 L) tanks at Proaquatix . Hatching success was estimated at each farm (~72% at LAB and ~96 %  at Proaquatix).  A control group and 3 live feed replacement treatments (50% replacement for rotifers and Artemia , 80% replacement for rotifers and Artemia and 80% for A rtemia  only) were tested in quadruplicate. Pre-trial eggs and larvae at 8, 18, 27 and 31 days post hatch (DPH) were sampled from each tank for fatty acid (FA), biometric, and microbiome analysis .  The preliminary results showed that at 18 DPH (last day  before introducing Otohime), the control treatment showed the highest weight  gain  followed by the 50% for rotifers and Artemia treatment (11.23 ± 2.25 mg and 7.39 ± 1.33 mg, respectively). At 29 DPH, the control also showed the highest weight  gain, but within the standard deviation of the replacement treatments. At 18 and 29 DPH the control had the highest length ,  within the standard deviation of the replacement treatments with the largest difference in the 80% for Artemia only treatment (6.02 ± 1.21 vs. 4.71 ± 2.06 at 18DPH and 19.9 ± 1.13 vs. 18.13 ± 1.99 at 29 DPH, respectively.  Fatty acid  results showed a relatively  similar  profiles  toward the end of the experiment between all treatments, but  highest DHA content in the 80% for Artemia treatment at 18 DPH , with 4.92 ± 1.32%  of total FAs in the control and 14.88 ± 2.86%  of total FAs  in the 80% for Artemia (Figure 1).  We find the preliminary results very promising  to replace live feeds by formulated diets,  which will help sustain the production of stable high quality  Florida pompano fingerlings. H owever, it is important to  keep in mind that further nutrition experiments,  to  accurately  determine  larvae  requirements is paramount , which will constitute a platform for formulating appropriate diet for larvae  fish.