Improvement of nutritional quality of live feed for aquaculture: An overview

Abstract

In hatcheries, the adequate supply of live feed has a vital role in feeding fish larvae, fry and fingerlings. Furthermore, the enhancement of the nutritional quality of live feeds is well‐developed techniques in aquaculture. Essential fatty acids (EFA) such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; C22:6 n−3), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5(n−3) and arachidonic acid (ARA; 20:4(n−6) and amino acids are an essential source of proteins for larval rearing of fish. However, the common practised live feeds used for the primary feeding such as rotifers and Artemia are naturally deficient in essential nutrient components. Hence, the improvement of the nutritional quality of live feeds with different oil emulsions and commercial diets, and manipulation of the feed are necessary for fish production. The production protocols of copepods, Moina and fairy shrimps as live feed are still underdeveloped in hatcheries. The different lipid sources using for the enrichment of Artemia and rotifers are not effective on other live feeds, especially copepods and cladocerans (Moina, Daphnia) and fairy shrimps. This review focuses on the importance of live feeds by the techniques of feed enhancement or enrichment of zooplankton by direct incorporation of nutrients for feeding of early stages of fish.

Effects of bio‐flocculated algae on the growth, digestive enzyme activity and microflora of freshwater fishCatla catla(Hamilton 1922)

“…Algae constitute an important primary food source for live feed organisms (rotifers, copepods, cladocerans, Artemia ) that are typically used in hatcheries (Divya & Ramasubramanian, 2019; Kandathil Radhakrishnan et al., 2019). One of the major advantages of bio‐flocculation for microalgae harvesting is the minimal use of inorganic flocculants, which prevents contamination of the biomass (Lee, 2009).…”

“…Nutritional enhancement/enrichment, the process of improving the nutritional quality of live feeds, is a well‐developed technique in aquaculture (Kandathil Radhakrishnan et al., 2019). Live feeds such as Artemia , Rotifers, Daphnia and Moina are a few of the important nutritional sources commonly used for rearing of shellfish and finfish at the hatchery level.…”

Enhancement of Live Food Nutritional Status with Essential Nutrients for Improving Aquatic Animal Health: A Review

“…Live food organisms are able to swim freely in the water column, thereby being constantly accessible to finfish and crustacean larvae [ 5 , 6 ]. Their jerking movements are likely to stimulate larval feeding responses [ 7 ]. On the contrary, formulated feeds often accumulate on the water surface or some slowly sink to the bottom, whereby becoming less accessible to larvae [ 5 ].…”

“…Substitution of live food by formulated diets has been emphasized [ 9 ]. However, the sole application of a formulated diet may seem like a far-fetched idea due to low its digestibility and the deterioration of water quality [ 6 , 7 ]. Even though the use of live food in larval rearing has been reported to improve larval growth performance, survival, and disease resistance [ 1 , 10 , 11 ], the cultivation and management of live food for aquatic production is costly and unpredictable [ 12 ].…”

Morphotype‐dependent feeding responses in the guppy Poecilia reticulata Peters, 1859 (Class: Actinopterygii) fed zooplankton

“…In many aquaculture practices, ornamental species suffer from high larval mortality (Juanes, 1994). One of the main reasons for this is the lack of the right type of diet and in adequate quantities (Conceição et al., 2010; Radhakrishnan et al., 2020). Many commercial formations of inert diets are inadequate to reduce heavy larval mortalities in aquaculture operations (Yúfera et al., 2000).…”