Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of salinity on the culture water quality, performance and body composition of Litopenaeus vannamei juveniles (1.16±0.30 g) reared for 36 days in a super-intensive system without water exchange at salinities of 4, 16 and 32‰. Groups of 200 animals (140/m2) were stocked, with three replicates, in nine fiber-cement tanks (1.11 × 1.29 × 0.70 m) with a useful volume of 400 L. Physical and chemical parameters of water, such as temperature and dissolved oxygen before and after midday, pH, alkalinity, total suspended solids, total ammonium nitrogen, nitrite, nitrate, and phosphate, were monitored. Performance parameters like survival, weight gain, specific growth rate, feed conversion ratio and protein retention rate, were also evaluated. The proximate composition of the juveniles was analyzed through the moisture, protein, lipid and ash contents. The physical and chemical parameters of the water were influenced by the treatments. The increased salinity produced a significant increase in the alkalinity and the concentrations of total suspended solids, nitrite and phosphate. Of the parameters that were examined to evaluate the performance and proximate composition of the shrimp, only survival, protein retention rate and body lipid content were significantly influenced. The highest values were found at a salinity of 32‰. However, the analysis of the proximate composition of the bioflocs showed that the moisture, protein and lipid contents increased as the salinity decreased. Growth, use of feed and survival of L. vannameijuveniles reared in a super-intensive system without water exchange is positively influenced by an increase of salinity from 4 to 32‰.
Highlights
The Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) is the most widely reared penaeid in the Western Hemisphere (Saoud et al, 2003)
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of salinity on the culture water quality, performance and body composition of Litopenaeus vannamei juveniles (1.16±0.30 g) reared for 36 days in a super-intensive system without water exchange at salinities of 4, 16 and 32‰
The analysis of the proximate composition of the bioflocs showed that the moisture, protein and lipid contents increased as the salinity decreased
Summary
The Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) is the most widely reared penaeid in the Western Hemisphere (Saoud et al, 2003). L. vannamei juveniles can be successfully reared at salinities of 5 to 35‰ (Ponce-Palafox et al, 1997), the salinity range considered ideal for the culture of the species is from 15 to 25‰ (Boyd, 1989). The excellent animal-performance characteristics of L. vannamei, together with its tolerance of a wide range of salinities, have made this species attractive for culture at low salinities in several American countries (McGraw et al, 2002), Thailand (Saoud et al, 2003), Israel (Boyd, 2001) and China (Cheng et al, 2006). The inland culture of marine shrimp allows the shrimp farms to be located at a distance from potentially contaminated coastal waters (Moya et al, 1999). Reduced salinities may affect the physiology of marine shrimp, resulting in decreased survival (Jiang et al, 2000)
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