Effect of Feed Rate on Productive Variables for the Brown Shrimp (Penaeus aztecus)

Abstract

One of the main species sustaining the shrimp fishery in the Gulf of Mexico is the brown shrimp Penaeus aztecus (Latoumerie, 2007). Due to its great importance in the market, the present research focused on this species, with the objective of collecting scientific information that would help to establish whether this species is suitable for farming. The study centered on measuring the effect of different feed rates on productive variables (weight gain, weekly weight gain, weekly length gain, survival, final weight, biomass, feed management, and feed conversion rate) over a period of eight weeks. The experiment comprised three treatments (each conducted with three repetitions): Treatment 1 (the control), which was conducted with a feed rate of 9%; Treatment 2, which was conducted with a 3% feed rate; and Treatment 3, which was conducted with a 6% feed rate. The feed rate percentages for the three treatments were calculated based on the biomass of the sample. The water quality parameters (dissolved oxygen, temperature, salinity, pH, and nitrogenated compounds) were observed to remain at similar levels. The present study concludes that the control treatment T1 (9%) yielded the best weight gain, weekly weight gain, weekly length gain, and final weight results, while T3 (6%) presented the best final biomass and weight gain results. However, taking into account the minor differences among the results obtained for groups T1 and T3, further to the higher percentage of feed administered and the survival rate observed, it can be concluded that T3 (6% feed rate) performed the best of the two treatments applied by the present study, due to the fact that it was much more cost effective and produced the highest yield.