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Growth performance of Litopenaeus vannamei under biofloc system using denitrified seawater

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Abstract

Strategies, such as the biological denitrification process, must be adopted to treat rich-nitrate water from biofloc systems, making it suitable for culture or proper disposal. This study evaluated the effect of water reuse from a BFT system after being subjected to a biological anaerobic denitrification process on shrimp performance and water quality in the rearing of Litopenaeus vannamei. A 63-day experiment was carried out at the Marine Station of Aquaculture of the Federal University of Rio Grande. L. vannamei juveniles (1.30 ± 0.48 g) were stocked in 150-L tanks at a density of 500 shrimp/m3. Four treatments (with three replicas each) were tested: natural seawater and denitrified seawater, both with and without biofloc inoculum. Temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, alkalinity, and total suspended solids (TSS) in the water were monitored. Ammonia and nitrite levels were higher without biofloc inoculum, while nitrate levels increased with inoculum use. Alkalinity and TSS were significantly higher in denitrified water with inoculum, driven mainly by the initial higher concentrations. A 100% mortality was found in the treatment using denitrified water without inoculum, probably due to the presence of byproducts after the denitrification process, but no differences in survival (>89%) were found in the other treatments. The biofloc inoculum helped with higher productivity (3.03 ± 0.08 kg/m3) and lower FCR (1.48 ± 0.05) in the treatment using seawater compared to the treatment in which no inoculum was used (2.62 ± 0.18 kg/m3 and 1.79 ± 0.16), in addition to serving as a biological treatment in denitrified seawater, readjusting the water for shrimp farming. As the growth performance of shrimp raised in denitrified water showed no differences compared to natural seawater, utilizing denitrified seawater from a biofloc system seems feasible for shrimp cultivation. However, alternatives for water treatment after the denitrification process need to be investigated.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to GUABI Animal Health and Nutrition, AQUATEC, TREVISAN, and Al Aqua for donating the experimental diets, shrimp post-larvae, and aeration system respectively.

Funding

The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Coordination for the Improvement of Higher-Level Personnel (CAPES), and Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS), grant number 23/2551-0000180-2. Wasielesky, W. is a research fellow of CNPq under process number PQ 307741/2022-2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shrimp Culture Laboratory, Marine Station of Aquaculture, Institute of Oceanography, Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG), Rio Grande, RS, 96210-030, Brazil

    Hellyjúnyor Brandão & Wilson Wasielesky Jr

  2. Laboratory of Ecology of Microorganisms Applied to Aquaculture, Marine Station of Aquaculture, Institute of Oceanography, Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG), Rio Grande, RS, 96210-030, Brazil

    Wellica Gomes dos Reis & Dariano Krummenauer

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Contributions

HB: conceptualization; methodology; investigation; data curation; formal analysis; writing—original draft; writing—review and editing; visualization. WGR: conceptualization; methodology; investigation; data curation; formal analysis; writing—review and editing. DK: conceptualization; writing—review; supervision; funding acquisition; resources. WWJ: conceptualization; writing—review and editing; supervision; project administration; funding acquisition; resources.

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Brandão, H., dos Reis, W.G., Krummenauer, D. et al. Growth performance of Litopenaeus vannamei under biofloc system using denitrified seawater. Aquacult Int 32, 3129–3145 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10499-023-01315-0

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