February 15-18, 2009 Washington State Convention Center Seattle ...

EFFECT OF STOCKING DENSITY AND FEED RATE ON SURVIVAL AND GROWTH OF
Litopenaeus Vannamei IN AN OUTDOOR FLOW-THROUGH TANK SYSTEM
Susmita Patnaik, Addison L. Lawrence, Brandon Klim and Frank L. Castille
Texas Agrilife Research Mariculture Laboratory at Port Aransas
Texas A & M System
1300 Port Street
Port Aransas, TX 78373 USA
spatnaik3@yahoo.com
Feed management is one of the important components that affects the growth and survival of shrimp. Proper feed rate together
with feed management can be instrumental behind low feed conversion and high growth, survival, and total production. A ten
week growth trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of stocking density and feed rate on growth and survival of Pacific White
Shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei. The study is being conducted in sixty outdoor tanks (and bottom area= 4.374 m 2 ) in ambient salinity
and water temperature. The incoming water was filtered and polished using sand, and diamond filter system before being
used in the tanks. The experiment was conducted with 50 cm of water in all tanks. Tanks were stocked with Litopenaeus vannamei
(5.25 g initial size) which were raised from PLs obtained from Harlingen shrimp farms Ltd., Harlingen, TX. Each tank was
equipped with four airstones (1”x”1x1”) for aeration. The experiment was designed as a three-by-three factorial with stocking
density at three levels (25, 50, and 75 shrimp/m 2 equivalent to 109, 219, and 329 shrimp/m 3 ) and feed rate at three levels (1.0,
1.3, and 1.6 g/shrimp/wk). Shrimp are being fed a prebiotic supplemented (short chain fructooligosaccharide, scFOS), 39% CP
feed three times daily by hand (Zeigler Brothers Inc., Gardners, Pennsylvania). To substantiate the effect of scFOS, a control
treatment was also included where shrimp are offered a feed without any FOS supplementation. Each treatment combination
was replicated six times. To maintain high water quality, the experimental tanks were operated with 33%/d water exchange.
Temperature, dissolved oxygen and salinity are monitored daily. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and turbidity were monitored on
a weekly basis. At the study termination, shrimp will be harvested and weighed tank wise separately. Water quality, and shrimp
harvest data including survival, growth, biomass and FCR would be analyzed using a Two-way ANOVA for significance in
difference. The paper will discuss the research findings of the experiment.
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