Padina caulescens and Schizochytrium sp. as Supplemented Feed in the Nursery Production of Penaeus vannamei Post Larvae Reared in Biofloc Systems

The appearance of diverse diseases in cultured shrimp has led to the search for alternative prevention strategies. One of these alternatives is Biofloc technology (BFT). However, this requires further optimization. The objective of this work is to improve this system by adding microalgae (Schizochytrium sp.), probiotic bacteria (Lactobacillus fermentum), and macroalga (Padina caulescens), which in addition to maintaining the quality of water in the Penaeus vannamei culture, improves growth parameters at the maternity stage. We installed an experiment that included six different treatments in culture tanks containing 250 L of seawater each, and 500 shrimp (68 mg) m/3, and evaluated the results for 35 days, in which we gradually decreased the inert-feed to 50-75% and substituted it with 50-25% of P. caulescens. The results showed that, in comparison to the control, survival, and final weight of the shrimps improved and improved further with the use of probiotic bacteria, Schizochytrium sp. and P. caulescens and probiotic bacteria enabled a reduction of 50% of the inert feed. Therefore, we recommended the use of P. caulescens, Schizochytrium sp. (LPU-1), and L. fermentum (T-19) in BFT cultures for P. vannamei.