Effects of Four Different Feeding Techniques on the Pond Culture of Pacific White Shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of four feed-management techniques on the production of Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, using a 16-wk trial performed in 16, 0.1-ha ponds stocked at 17 shrimp/m(2). Four treatments were used for this study: standard feeding protocol (SFP) fed twice daily, a 15% increase to the SFP fed twice daily, timer feeders programmed to feed six times daily following the SFP, and ad libitum using the AQ1 acoustic demand feeding system. Significant increases in final weights were seen using the timer and acoustic feeders (28.66 and 35.91 g, respectively) when compared with the SFP and SFP + 15% (23.55 and 24.65 g, respectively). The AQ1 treatment also resulted in a significantly higher shrimp value ($21,198/ha) than the other treatments ($11,776-$13,446/ha). No significant differences were seen in survival (72.2 +/- 5.99%), feed conversion ratio (1.03 +/- 0.095), or water quality. These results demonstrate that increasing the feed by 15% when feeding twice daily gives no advantage to production. Increasing the feedings from two to six times per day did improve growth and economic returns, and using acoustic feedback to feed based on feeding activity can further improve production and economic returns.