Project Number: 5320-31000-007-02
Project Type: Nonfunded Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: May 01, 2005
End Date: Apr 30, 2009

Objective:
To determine the minimum nutrient requirements for reproductive performance in maturing shrimp broodstock, and develop a prepared shrimp maturation feed that will eliminate or substantially reduce the need for the currently used raw ingredients (e.e., bloodworms, squid and artemia).

Approach:
The maturation feed that is currently in use at Oceanic Institute (consisting of raw bloodworms, squid, and artemia biomass) will be used as the control diet. This work will be conducted in two phases. In the first phase, diets based on the composition of the control diet will be tested for their suitability as maturation diets. In the secound phase, the necessity of specific feed components (nutrients, etc.) will be assessed. The requirement level of those components [e.g., long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (epa, dha, and ara), cholesterol, phospholipids (lecithin), nucleotides, tryptophan and fat-soluble vitamins (a, d and e0)] that are found to have a positive influence on maturation performance will be quantified using dose-response trials. The information obtained from these tasks will be used to formulate a diet that meets the nutritional needs of maturing shrimp and the ability of this diet to replace the control feed will be tested. Documents NFCA with Oceanic Institute.