Feed Management In Shrimp Production

• Shrimp production systems and their feed management must be considered together for understanding the biological aspects of the culture species. Effective feed management practices will produce maximum shrimp growth and survival with the lowest feed conversion with minimum impact on effluent quality. Inadequate feed management will lead to suboptimal production, promote various diseases & lead to poor water quality.
• There are Several steps are involved in proper feed management: feed selection, reception, storage and handling, application methods and feeding regimes, shrimp activity, feeding frequency and time, geographical location, species, age, size, stocking density, season, unusual environmental conditions, survival, growth, biomass and natural food availability.
• Proper feeding strategies must consider physiological processes that affect feed intake and digestion in the targeted shrimp species. These include relationships between feeding activity and circadian rhythms, gastric evacuation times, moulting cycle stage, etc. Shrimp are bottomfeeders, and it is difficult to estimate feed consumption rate unless feeding trays or lift nets are used
• Phase-to-phase feeding programmes must be designed to target the best feed nutrient profile and feed presentation at a specific culture stage, environmental and rearing condition. Cultural challenges such as disease, poor water quality, and high stocking densities can be minimized with the proper feed design. On the other hand, feeds must be aligned to account for the availability of natural food in ponds to spare critical and expensive nutrients, such as proteins, vitamins and minerals.

IMPORTANCE OF FEED MANAGEMENT

In general, the nutritional performance of a shrimp feed depends upon five interconnected factors namely:

• The nutrient content and composition of the diet being fed
• The physical properties and water stability of the diet being fed
• The transportation and storage of the diet before feeding on the farm
• The feeding method employed for feed application and usage on the farm
• The farming system, stocking density, water management and availability of natural foods.
  
  

The commercial shrimp feed manufacturer has direct control over the first two factors while farmers and their staff have direct control over the last three.

In extensive and semi-intensive shrimp culture systems, there is a lot of difference in feed management. Feeding frequency is limited to four or six times per day and feed spread over the whole pond. There are also some indications that lower feeding frequencies are not affecting growth. The reason is most probably the availability of natural feeds in the pond, which complements the shrimp nutrition in the absence of feed (between feedings).

Over shrimp feeding will consum over the 60% of the production cost, Feeding practices must be adapted for natural changes in feeding activity with growth and environmental conditions change. The shrimp behaviour, feeding habits, continuous feedback on pond environmental parameters and shrimp population are critical factors for successful feed management. Optimizing overall management of production systems from stocking to harvest.