A study produced by a team in Brazil has shown that tilapia waste could be an effective alternative to traditional feed in vannamei shrimp diets.

The team, based at Brazil's Federal Rural University of the Semi-Arid Region and Santa Catarina State University conducted tests on the usage of tilapia processing waste silage (TPWS) in clear-water and biofloc systems.

Five different TPWS percentages were tested for both systems (0%, 1.5%, 3%, 4.5%, 6%), each partially replacing formulations of salmon meal, salmon oil, and wheat midlings. It should be noted the fishmeal content remained consistent.

According to the results published in the journal Science Direct, the shrimp had a plus 80% survival rate with all treatments, and were not affected by systems or diet.

The team believes that TPWS could therefore be safely substituted into vannamei diets, reducing feed costs as well as resolving some of the waste removal issues on tilapia farms.

In addition, the study found that the final weight of the shrimp and growth rate were statistically affected by the water system but not by the diet, with shrimp produced in biofloc systems demonstrating better growth (0.9g/ week) than their clear water counterparts (0.7g/week) The team attributed this to the better availability of natural food.

"BFT [biofloc] has gained popularity because it offers a practical solution to maintaining water quality and recycle [sic.] feed nutrients simultaneously," the team said. "Another advantage of the biofloc system is the possibility to use alternatives to low protein diets and consequently, decrease the production costs; mainly due to the continuous availability of natural food source in a form of live microorganisms."

The full paper can be read here.