Technical article · 2025
Mihai Sun, Eva Werbrouck, Roeland Wouters
A holistic broodstock management strategy combining health diets, probiotic wafers, and formulated maturation feeds boosts shrimp fecundity, biosecurity, and nauplii quality.
Managing stress, biosecurity, and nutrition in shrimp broodstock is critical for consistent production of high-quality nauplii. This article presents a holistic management framework utilizing functional feeds and probiotics in Penaeus vannamei facilities. During handling and acclimatization, functional diets containing organic acids selectively inhibit pathogenic Vibrio spp. while sparing beneficial Bacillus strains. Dietary supplementation with probiotic wafers (Sanolife PRO-TAB at 0.4 g/shrimp/day) nearly doubled daily copulation rates from 5% to 9%, increased egg fecundity by 6% to 172,000 eggs/female, boosted nauplii output to 157,000 nauplii/female (versus 128,000 in controls), and significantly decreased Vibrio loads in both female hepatopancreas and Stage V nauplii. Furthermore, replacing 40% of fresh-frozen feeds (squid and polychaetes) with a balanced semi-moist maturation diet (BREED-S) enhanced feed efficiency, improved egg and nauplii production, and reduced maturation feeding costs by 30%. Combining stress mitigation, gut-level microbial control, and biosecure formulated feeds ensures reliable, cost-effective hatchery performance.
shrimp broodstock, Penaeus vannamei, biosecurity, probiotics, nauplii quality, maturation diet, Vibrio control
Next-generation probiotic wafers deliver targeted Bacillus strains directly to shrimp, increasing nauplii production by 37% and boosting farm profitability.
Targeted microbial management in shrimp farming requires innovative probiotic delivery methods, such as attractable non-feed matrices, to ensure effective gut colonization and pathogen suppression even during periods of reduced shrimp appetite.
Dietary supplementation with the probiotic Sanolife PRO-2 improved Pacific white shrimp survival up to 96% and increased total harvest biomass by 13-14% during a 60-day grow-out trial.
