Microbial‐based systems for aquaculture of fish and shrimp: an updated review

Abstract

The continuous development of world aquaculture demands new strategies and alternatives aimed to achieve sustainability. The use or microorganisms in aquaculture has greatly evolved during the last two decades. From being considered as a potential threat, during the last years, they have been used as probiotics and inclusively as food source for fish and crustacean. The microbial‐based systems represent one of the most viable strategies to achieve a sustainable aquaculture. In short, these systems are based on the promotion of microbial proliferation, either autotrophic or heterotrophic microorganisms; these microbes are expected to use, recycle and transform the excess of nutrients from faeces, dead organisms, unconsumed food and diverse metabolites into biomass, which would be further consumed by the cultured organisms. Successful results on using microbial‐based systems have been documented around the world; however, there are key aspects to consider and yet to experiment before a system could be implemented. Some of those aspects are analysed in this manuscript, while new advances in the use of microbial‐based systems and recommendations are also presented.

Physical and chemical characteristics of lyophilized biofloc produced in whiteleg shrimp cultures with different fishmeal inclusion into the diets

“…The most abundant particles observed were consistent with the ciliates and flagellates sizes, which can varied from 2 to 10 μm (Gonzalez et al, 1990), and have reported as common microorganism in biofloc (Decamp et al, 2007;Monroy-Dosta et al, 2013;Martínez-Córdova et al, 2014).…”

“…The proximate composition of biofloc may vary according to several factors such as cultured specie, salinity, aeration intensity, dissolved oxygen, carbon source, temperature, as well as microbial community developed (heterotrophic, mixotrophic or autotrophic) (Decamp et al, 2007;De Schryver et al, 2008;Martínez-Córdova et al, 2014). In this study, the lack of significant differences among treatments, indicates the biofloc nutritional quality was independent of fishmeal level present in the diet.…”

“…At certain C:N ratio, heterotrophic bacteria immobilize inorganic nitrogen, converting it into microbial biomass with the subsequent formation of bioflocs (Yuniasari & Ekasari, 2010;Martínez-Córdova et al, 2014). In this study it was shown that the low CN ratio (12:1) combined with low illumination allowed the development of heterotrophic biofloc.…”

“…However, the use of low fishmeal diets combined with biofloc technology, could be a successful strategy for culturing aquatic species without negative effects in their production response (López-Eliás et al, 2015), since the bioflocs contain essential amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins and other nutritional components which are mainly derived from the microorganism present in the culture systems (Ju et al, 2008;Martínez-Córdova et al, 2014).…”

Biofloc Technology (BFT): A Tool for Water Quality Management in Aquaculture

“…Thus, strategies aimed to overcome these challenges are required. In this regard, the modification of physicochemical variables of the culture system to favor the proliferation of particular biotic communities has been adopted not only to improve the recirculation of nutrients (and the consequent detoxification of the system) but also to use the biomass of such biotic communities as direct food source for the cultured organisms [5]. These kinds of systems, also known as biofloc (BFT) technology systems, promise to solve some of the above challenges and revolutionize aquaculture [6].…”