In aquaculture, feed additives have proved to be a more than useful tool as immune stimulants to improve intestinal health, stress, and disease resistance among other effects. Furthermore, S. platensis as an additive it has been shown to reinforce the immune system of shrimp and improve nutrient bioavailability. Microalgae, in particular Spirulina platensis , possess high protein content and an ideal amino acid profile, comparable to the amino acid profile of marine protein sources origin such as fish meal (Li et al., 2022) . Thus, present study aims to investigate the use of extract spirulina additive inclusion of standard commercial shrimp diets and the effect on their shrimp growth.
Considering the goal of the experiment, a 35-day growth trial was carried out using a Spirulina platensis extract as an additive in 4 different diets (SP05, SP1, SP2 AND SP4) with 4 spirulina dietary inclusion (0.5 % , 1, 2 and 4 % of spirulina extract, respectively ) and with a control (CON) diet without additive . All diets were assayed in triplicated tanks ( 15 animals per tank) in an open system with clear water. Diets were designed using a standard commercial formulation with a protein percentage of 33%. Sampling was carried out every 15 days and the increase in biomass and survival of each treatment were monit ored. Also, water quality parameters were measured and stable in all experimental tanks.
At the end of growth trial, no significant differences were only found in final average biomass (Table 1). On the other hand, in the statistical analysis of survival, no significant differences were found either. The dietary inclusion of spirulina did not have significant effect on survival data. Nevertheless , a quadratic trend has been observed between S. platensis dietary inclusion and growth and nutritive parameters, being the optimal microalgae inclusion around 0.5%.
Li, L., Liu, H., & Zhang, P. (2022). Effect of spirulina meal supplementation on growth performance and feed utilization in fish and shrimp: a meta-analysis. Aquaculture Nutrition.