Automated feeding systems for shrimp: Effects of feeding schedules and passive feedback feeding systems

Abstract

Shrimp aquaculture has been on a growing trend for the past four decades and its continued success will rely on efficient feeding protocols and reductions in labor cost. Various studies have demonstrated better growth and feed conversion for shrimp fed numerous meals in opposition to the traditional 1 to 4 meals offered during the day. With the adoption of automatic feeding systems by the shrimp industry not only can more feedings be delivered but also the time of day when feed is delivered is less problematic. This opens the door to looking at various feed management strategies. The goal of this work was to continue the development of a standard feeding protocol for timer feeders (SPTF) to maximize growth rates and production efficiency in semi-intensive pond production of shrimp through manipulation of feeding schedules. For this work, a 13-week pond production trial was performed in 16, 0.1 ha outdoors ponds, stocked at 35 shrimp/m2. Four treatments including: three fixed feeding treatments based on SPTF Day, SPTF Night and SPTF 115% 24 h were offered using automatic timer-feeders, and a fourth on demand treatment utilized AQ1 acoustic feeding system. To further evaluate different combinations of number of meals, feed quantities and time of feeding, a 11-week growth trial was conducted in 32, 800 L circular tanks in a recirculating green-water system. Results for the pond trial further confirm higher yields with AQ1 acoustic feeding system and showed no statistical differences among timer feeder treatments. Results in the tank trial indicated a relationship between growth response to increasing feed inputs and number of meals rather than feeding schedule alone. We also observed in the same trial a positive response on growth to more meals for identical feeding rates. Results confirm that increasing the number of feeding allows increased feed inputs and thus increased growth. The on demand feeding protocol using passive acoustics, resulted in the best performance of the shrimp.