Improving production and diet assimilation in fish-prawn integrated aquaculture, using iliophagus species

Improving the Efficiency of Lambari Production and Diet Assimilation Using Integrated Aquaculture with Benthic Species

“…Similarly, curimbatá did not affect the prawn's performance. All species developed well in stagnant earthen ponds using nutrient-rich water, corroborating previous results [31,32,36]. The total annual high-value biomass produced increased from 9 t ha −1 in lambari monoculture to 16 t ha −1 in integrated culture, using the same space, amount of freshwater, feed, and other resources indicating a tremendous increase in system efficiency.…”

“…However, total species biomass increased 35%, and FCR decreased 30%, showing that the yield of curimbatá compensates for the decrease in the prawn yield and the recovery of lost nutrients and energy increased. The higher biomass of lambari in the present experiment than the biomass of tambaqui in the study of Franchini et al [31] was enough to provide the necessary wastes to support the density of Amazon river prawn and curimbatá with no adverse effect on the prawn growth.…”

“…Thus, at 2 months, juvenile prawn should be stocked in integrated culture with yellow tail lambari as a strategy to combine and coincide both species' cultivation periods. The curimbatá has a slow growth rate, but it should be traded as juveniles of different sizes to grow-out farms, as bait-fish for the sportive fisheries market, or to the environmental mitigation market [12,31]. Juveniles of different sizes produced in hatcheries are released annually into dam-impacted hydrological basins in Brazil, which support a massive artisanal fishery [12].…”

“…The number and proportion of the unfed components of an integrated aquaculture system depends on the pelagic species' mass density because it provides residues and wastes. A co-stocking experiment that lasted 2 months showed that the yield of the Amazon river prawn stoked at 11 prawns m −2 together to 4 g tambaqui (the pelagic fed species), stocked at 1.4 m −2 , decreased by 25% when 5 curimbatás m −2 were added [31]. However, total species biomass increased 35%, and FCR decreased 30%, showing that the yield of curimbatá compensates for the decrease in the prawn yield and the recovery of lost nutrients and energy increased.…”

“…The feeding for all treatments began after the stocking of the yellow tail lambari (Figure 1). Before that, the Amazon river prawn and curimbatá fed on natural biota [30][31][32]. A commercial diet recommended for omnivorous fish juveniles was provided.…”