The Use of Omega-3 Enriched Artemia Biomass
in the Larviculture of Penaeus vannamei

Jane Sylvester, Vernon Sato, Jeff Garvey,
Bruce Smith and David Kawahigashi*

Kahuku Shrimp Company, Kahuku, Hawaii
*San Francisco Bay Brand, Newark, California

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The conventional hatchery feeding schedule for the marine shrimp, Penaeus vannamei, during the post-larval stages consists of a combination of newly hatched nauplii and commercially available dry diets. In an effort to reduce operating costs during the period of highest feed consumption, a series of feeding trials were conducted at the Kahuku Shrimp Company hatchery using frozen Omega-3 Enriched Artemia biomass as a complete replacement for live Artemia nauplii during the stages PL-3 through PL-9.

The Omega-3 Enriched Artemia biomass diet was fed to 104 larval rearing tank (LRT) replicates over a 12-month period. Artemia nauplii was fed to the LRT’s from stages Mysis-1 to PL-2 and was discontinued thereafter. The average stocking density for each 3000-liter larval rearing tank was 150 P. vannamei nauplii per liter. Average survival to PL-9 was 59% or 88 post-larvae per liter at harvest. The control LRT’s receiving 100% live Artemia nauplii recorded an average percent survival to PL-9 of 55%. Average stocking and harvest densities were essentially identical to the test LRT’s. The Omega-3 Enriched Artemia biomass diet was fed according to the following schedule.

PL-8

Stage	Grams/MT/Day	Grams/3 MT/Day	Feedings/day
PL-1	30 g	60 g	1
PL-2	40 g	120 g	2
PL-3	40 g	120 g	2
PL-4	50 g	150 g	2
PL-5	76 g	228 g	2
PL-6	151 g	454 g	3
PL-7	190 g	570 g	3
PL-8	266 g	798 g	4
PL-9	302 g	907 g	5

The control LRT’s consumed an average of 6 kilograms of Artemia cysts per one million post-larvae produced. At the current market price of $25./lb., Artemia cyst costs were calculated to be $300. The Omega-3 Enriched Artemia biomass fed LRT’s consumed an average of 1.5 kilograms of Artemia cysts per one million post-larvae at a feed cost of $75. The significant savings in feed costs and the negligible difference in the LRT survival between the control and test diet LRT’s demonstrate that the Omega-3 Enriched Artemia biomass can be used as a viable replacement for Artemia nauplii during the post-larval stages.

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