I N C O R P O R AT I N G

F I S H FA R M I N G T E C H N O L O G Y

May | June 2014

Assessing the potential of polychaete meal in
shrimp feeds

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The International magazine for the aquaculture feed industry

FEATURE

Assessing the potential

of polychaete meal
in shrimp feeds
by Ingrid Lupatsch, PhD, Center for Sustainable Aquaculture Research, Swansea
University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, United Kingdom

etritivorous marine polychaete

worms are farmed commercially as live bait for sport
angling and most recently as an
ingredient in formulated aquaculture feeds.
Polychaetes are considered as an important constituent for shrimp maturation diets
and as live feeds for flatfish. They contain longchain fatty acids, prostaglandins and bromophenols, with the latter attributed to enhance
the seafood flavour of the farmed products.
Especially members of the Nereidae (e.g.
Nereis virens, N. diversicolor) are currently
being used and cultured for this purpose.
The following study evaluated the use
of formulated feeds containing polychaete
meal (from Nereis virens) in the culture
of Litopenaeus vannamei combining both
digestibility and growth trials.

Livestock, culture conditions

and experimental design

Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei spawned and subsequently reared

at the Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture
were used for all the trials in this study.
Those shrimp were offspring of a broodstock acquired from a commercial hatchery
(Bonaire, Caribbean).
Polychaete meal was obtained as freeze
dried product from a polychaete farm in

South Wales and marketed by Prochaete

Innovations Ltd. Detailed composition is
described in Table 1.
All the trials were set up indoors as part
of a recirculation system, which included
mechanical and bio-filtration units, a protein
skimmer and a sand filter. Water temperature was kept at 28C, salinity at 32%, and
photoperiod was set at 12 hours of light
daily. Temperature and dissolved-oxygen levels were measured daily, while total ammo-

Table 2: Formulation and composition of experimental feeds (per kg as fed)

Fish meal*

Dry matter %

Polychaete
meal**

69.4

72.7

Protein %

84.5

85.2

Organic matter %

78.1

74.4

Energy %

82.2

76.2

* Composition of fish meal per kg as fed:

Dry Matter 933g, Crude protein 646 g,
Lipid 99g, Ash 183g, Gross energy 18.39
MJ.
** Composition of freeze dried polychaete
meal per kg as fed: Dry Matter 950, Crude
protein 543 g, Lipid 110, Ash 120g, Gross
energy 20.5 MJ.

Fishmeal

30%
Polychaete

60%
Polychaete

100%
Polychaete

520

340

180

180

340

520

Wheat gluten
Table 1: Apparent digestibility coefficients
(percent) of polychaete and fishmeal as
determined in shrimp

Ingredients

100

100

100

100

Wheat starch

280

270

260

255

Formulation
Fish meal
Polychaete meal

Vitamin &Mineral

10

10

10

10

Di-Calcium- Phosphate

10

20

30

Fish oil

50

50

50

45

Binder (Alginate)

20

20

20

20

Dry matter, g

918

920

925

922

Ash, g

130

128

127

125

Analyzed Composition

Lipid, g

102

106

109

107

Crude Protein, g

410

413

400

392

Gross Energy, MJ

18.40

18.51

18.67

18.77

352

354

344

338

Digestible Energy*, MJ

Digestible Protein*, g

14.83

14.72

14.67

14.53

DP/DE ratio g/MJ

23.7

24.1

23.4

23.3

* incorporating results from digestibility trial

10 | INTERNATIONAL AQUAFEED | May-June 2014

FEATURE
nia nitrogen, nitrite, nitrate and pH were
measured weekly.
Feeds were prepared by mixing the dry
ingredients with a binder and water, extruded
through a meat grinder and afterwards dried
in a 45oC oven for 24 hours. The resulting
pellets had a diameter of 2.5mm and were
stable up to 24 hours in water.

Table 3: Performance parameters of juvenile L. vannamei after 42 days of growth at 28oC

(average STD)

Apparent digestibility coefficients (ADC)

for dry matter, crude protein, gross energy
and organic matter of fish meal and polychaete meal were determined in replicates in
shrimp of ~ 15g size according to Lupatsch et
al. 1997. Chromic oxide was used as the nonabsorbed marker (0.8 percent inclusion) and
faeces were collected by siphoning. Faecal
matter from a given tank was pooled over the
trial period until a sufficient amount had been
collected for subsequent analyses.
Digestibility of ingredients were calculated
using well established equations and are presented in Table 1.

Growth trial

Thirty shrimp of 1.7g initially were stocked

in 300L tanks providing triplicates per treatment. Feeds were formulated to contain
40 percent protein and 10 percent lipid
and to gradually include polychaete meal at
the expense of fish meal (Table 2). Shrimp

30%
Polychaete

60%
Polychaete

100%
Polychaete

Weight initial (g)

1.74 0.06

1.73 0.06

1.78 0.00

1.75 0.03

Weight final (g)

5.38 0.37

6.24 0.22

6.33 1.01

5.40 0.45

SGR*

Digestibility

Fishmeal

2.69 0.09

3.05 0.01

3.01 0.37

2.68 0.23

Feed intake g/
day/shrimp

0.21 0.01

0.22 0.02

0.21 0.03

0.21 0.02

FCR**

2.44 0.19

2.01 0.07

2.00 0.19

2.43 0.16

Survival (%)

86.7 6.7

88.9 6.9

85.6 16.4

84.4 5.1

Diet treatment

* SGR = Specific growth rate

** FCR = Feed conversion ratio = g of feed fed per g of live weight gained.

were fed manually to apparent satiation up

to three times daily. Any uneaten pellets
were collected at the end of the day and
accounted for.
Feed intake was thus quantified and evaluated in relation to growth response.
The trial lasted for 42 days and shrimp
were sampled initially and at the end of the
trial for subsequent chemical analyses. Through
comparative body composition of the shrimp
carcass the relationship between dietary protein and energy intake and protein and energy
deposition was assessed, which allowed estimation of the utilization efficiency of the feed
ingredients incorporated in the diets.

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Results and discussion

Polychaete containing feeds were well

accepted by the shrimp and results indicated
that digestibility and efficacy of polychaete
meal was equivalent to fishmeal. Survival of
shrimp on all dietary treatments was above 84
percent with no significant difference among
treatments. There was also no significant
difference in growth and FCR of shrimp at
any time during the experiment (Table 3).
Nevertheless, there is a trend that shrimp on
the combination diets were growing slightly
faster than the diets based on a single ingredient (Table 3).
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FEATURE
position of shrimp was detected among the
different treatments (Table 4).
The efficiencies of energy and protein

utilization were calculated from energy and

protein gained in relation to energy and
protein consumed. Here, the superiority

of the mixed feeds was more apparent.

Gross energy retention efficiency was 15.1
percent for L. vannamei fed the 60%
polychaete meal, which was significantly
higher than the energy efficiency of shrimp
on the fish meal and polychaete meal only
diets (Figure 1). Similarly the crude protein retention efficiency was significantly
higher for L. vannamei fed the 60 percent
polychaete at 22.7 percent compared to
shrimp fed the single ingredient diets
(Figure 1). No significant difference was
observed for energy or protein retention
efficiency for shrimp fed the polychaete
only diet compared to the 100 percent
control fishmeal diet.

Conclusion

Fig. 1: Protein and energy retention efficiency in shrimp fed the experimental feeds
Table 4: Proximate composition of juvenile L. vannamei fed diets containing polychaete meal at
increasing levels (per g wet weight).
Dietary
treatment

Initial

Fishmeal

30%
Polychaete

60%
Polychaete

100%
Polychaete

Dry matter, g

210

230 6.6

233 8.4

244 9.1

232 11.6

Ash, g

30.0

29.3 1.8

27.1 2.0

28.3 0.7

28.0 0.5

Protein, g

144

162 3.7

162 6.5

170 8.2

161 8.9

Energy, kJ

3.92

4.61 0.1

4.81 0.3

5.13 0.2

Polychaete meal inclusion in the diets of

L. vannamei supported equal growth performance
and feed efficiency compared to a standard
fish meal diet. Freeze-dried polychaete meal
could thus serve as a total substitution for fishmeal. The final decision however is dependent
upon availability and price of the product.

4.84 0.3

More InforMatIon:

Ingrid Lupatsch, PhD,

Email: i.lupatsch@swansea.ac.uk

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