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Aquatic organisms have various pigments contained in their body and may be an important characteristic for the consumer choice. Carotenoids are the main group of pigments present in aquatic organisms and play an important role not only in colouring but also in the growth, reproduction and maintenance of these animals. As aquatic animals do not have the ability to synthesize carotenoids, they must be ingested in the food, and in some cases, they are converted into forms that are possible to store or use in the animal metabolism. In this work, information was collected about the colour characteristics of aquatic organisms and their influence on aquaculture. Various dietary ingredients, such as vegetables and microorganisms, may be potential sources of pigments for aquaculture species, reducing production costs and dependence on synthetic sources of carotenoids. Some species with aquaculture potential may be better studied in terms of the ability to use carotenoid pigments and their function in the body.

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In Brazil, studies and production of penaeid shrimp in a biofloc technology (BFT) system are recent, but the results point to a promising future. Research with feed restriction inducing compensatory growth in shrimps has been shown to be a technique that allows a saving of around 25% in the use of feed for shrimp production. It also allows the reduction of costs with salaries and adapts shrimp farming to the world demand for environmentally friendly production, with the reduction of nitrogen and phosphorus levels in its effluents, as well as lower water use in shrimp farming. In crustaceans, it has been shown that after a period of feed restriction, the animals show a pronounced compensatory growth when they return to a sufficient food source. Studies with the penaeid shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei reported the ability of the species to obtain a complete compensatory growth after short feeding periods (1 to 3 days) followed by feeding; These short periods of fasting presented a greater efficiency in the feed conversion besides the decrease in the concentration of phosphorus present in the aquatic environment, coming from the excreta. The adoption of a restriction program in the feeding using BFT may contribute to a reduction in operating costs, reduction of metabolic nutrients dissolved in water, and, consequently, an increase in the number of cycles in which the same water can be reused for production reducing production costs and improving productivity indices in shrimp farming.