Biofloc meal incorporated diet improves the growth and physiological responses of Penaeus vannamei

The study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of biofloc meal incorporated diets on growth performance and physiological responses in Penaeus vannamei. The feeding trial was conducted using two control diets and four experimental diets, having biofloc meal at various incorporation levels, namely control diet (commercial diet), BFT0 (biofloc meal control, biofloc meal at 0%) BFT10 (biofloc meal at 10%), BFT20 (biofloc meal at 20%), BFT30 (biofloc meal at 30%), and BFT40 (biofloc meal at 40%). Healthy post larvae of P. vannamei (0.03 ± 0.00 g) were stocked (50 shrimp per tank) in a glass tank and fed with the experimental diets at 10% of animal body weight, four times a day, for a duration of 60 days. Among the different treatments, significantly higher final body weight (1.30 ± 0.06 g), weight gain (1.27 ± 0.06 g), specific growth rate (6.21 ± 0.01%/day), and survival rate (62 ± 0.20%) were recorded in BFT30 diet. In contrast, shrimp reared using control diet exhibited lower specific growth rate (5.53 ± 0.02%/day) and survival (48 ± 0.14%) compared to other treatment groups. At the end of the experiment, serum protein (1.6 ± 0.02 g/dl), prophenoloxidase (16.35 ± 2.98 U/mg protein), and peroxidase (0.2 ± 0.03 U/ml) were found to be significantly higher in BFT30 diet-fed group. Similarly, the digestive enzyme activities of amylase (4.75 ± 0.87 U/mg protein) and lipase (118 ± 5.10 U/mg protein) of BFT30 reared shrimp were found to be significantly higher. In addition, the histological observation of the shrimp revealed the larger proportion of mature cells with intracellular digestion (B) and absorption (R) in BFT30 group. Overall, the study revealed that biofloc meal incorporation at 30% in shrimp diet would potentially improves the growth performance and physiological responses of shrimp.